Strategic and Operational Relevance of Heavy Lift in the United States Marine Corps: CH-53E Program

摘要

This essay examines the strategic and operational relevance of the heavy lift capability in the United States Marine Corps. The only way to truly realize the full potential of Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare (EMW) and the capabilities of the MV-22, is to maintain the existing synergistic relationship between the medium and heavy lift aircraft working together to accomplish the mission. In current future plans the MV-22 will be required to carry external loads for 48 percent of its sorties in the movement of a Regimental Landing Team (RLT). This minimizes the speed advantage of the MV-22, as the limitations inherent with external loads (increased drag, load instability and integrity), prevent taking most external loads out toward the maximum speed of the MV-22. Accordingly, the best alternative to ensuring that we preserve the MV-22 speed advantage is to ensure there are adequate numbers of CH-53E helicopters to perform all the majority of external lift missions. If the Marine Corps changed the current ratio of medium lift to heavy lift aircraft from 3:1 to 2:1 i.e. by adding two CH-53E's to the current MEU, increasing the number of CH-53E's (to six) we would see a 20 percent reduction in total waves and a 22 percent decrease in time required to accomplish a reinforced Company movement. In the future changing the force ratio from 2:1 to 1:1 (medium to heavy), the CH-53E (SLEP) has the potential to provide a significant improvement in the ability to move the force. There is the potential for a 28 percent decrease in sorties required to accomplish a Regimental Landing Team movement by air and an overall timesaving of 29 percent in addition to the already realized savings of 25 percent from balancing the force with today's CH-53E.