CH-53E Super Stallion Helicopter

    Going to talk about another United States Marine Corps (USMC) helicopter. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is the Marine Corps’ primary heavy lift helicopter and has been in service for over 30 years.  It is manufactured Sikorsky and there are currently over 152 CH-53E aircraft in operation.

    The awesome CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter uses GPS, doppler radar, FLIR, and ANVIS-HUD sensors to keep it safer while flying. To also keep it safe and attack enemies it uses .62mm and 50 caliber guns (as a mission kit). To keep in communications it used UHF/VHF/HF radios, secure comm. capability and IFF. Making this a really safe and deadly helicopter.

    This beast of a heavy-lift helicopter the Marine Corps use can carry a 26,000 pound light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo fifty miles and back (100 miles!). Or it can carry enough combat loaded Marines to lead an assault or a helpful humanitarian operation.

    Although the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is powerful enough to lift every aircraft in the Marine inventory, except the KC-130, the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is compact enough to deploy on amphibious assault ships, with its speed and agility it can easily qualify as much more than a heavy lifter.

    The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is armed with window mounted 50 caliber machine guns.  It has chaff and flare dispensers for anti air defense. It even has an in-flight refueling probe for limitless range and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imager for night and all-weather navigation. The  CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is often called the assault transport of Marine ground forces.

    The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has played many roles in our US wars. 1980s, the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter saw its first shipboard deployment. It was deployed in Beirut, Lebanon as a transport for peacekeepers. 1990s, it was used in Operation Desert Storm. 2000s, it was used in Afghanistan, Iraq.

    The crew takes two pilots, one crew chief/right gunner, one left gunner, one tail gunner (combat crew). Not including the crew the helicopter can transport 37 Marine troops and 55 with centerline centerline seats installed. It has a length of 99 feet and a half inches.The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has a rotor diameter of 79 feet. A height of 27 feet and 9 inches. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has a nice disc area of 4,900 ft^2.

    To me this helicopter is like a Chinook helicopter and an Apache helicopter put together. It has power like a Chinook helicopter and the firepower like an Apache helicopter. It is the best of both worlds. If I was a Marine I might even like it better than the Cobra. My friend knows a lot about the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter and tells me it is a beast and he is really into aviation flying machines also.

    There is a chance after I graduate college and become an Army National Guard pilot I could become a United States Marine Corps pilot. That would be an amazing job.