Revitalizing a Legacy: The Remaining Future of the CH-46E

Abstract

For over 40 years, the Marine Corps has relied on the CH-46E Sea Knight, or "Phrog," as their primary rotary-winged assault support aircraft. Through the years, the Sea Knight has proven itself in every topography, climate, and mission it has supported. While the service life has been extended another 12 years, the future versatility of the venerable helicopter is in jeopardy. Already, the results of doubling its 20-year projected service life are "escalating maintenance costs, reduced reliability, availability, maintainability, and significant performance degradation." These well-documented problems will continue to shift focus away from the CH-46 as the primary choice for tactical assault support missions. Therefore, the future CH-46E community will be restricted from performing tactical missions unless necessary airframe upgrades are performed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 08, 2005
Accession Number
ADA504342

Entities

People

  • R. A. Smith

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Composite Materials
  • Doppler Radar
  • Engines
  • Gas Turbines
  • Helicopters
  • Maintenance
  • Marine Corps
  • Radar
  • Rotary Wing Aircraft
  • Tilt Rotor Aircraft
  • Transport Aircraft
  • Turbines
  • United States
  • Warfare
  • Weight

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Economics
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.