Israel completed a nearly decade-long life extension project on the Sikorsky [UTX] CH-53 helicopter, The Israeli Air Force (IAF) said July 30.
Israel’ CH-53s, known as the Yas’ur, began to enter the Aerial Maintenance Unit (AMU) for the life extension program in 2006. Called “Yas’ur 2025,” it aimed to extend the helicopters’ operational lifespan to at least 2025.
“This is the end of a long journey and the excitement is great: The first helicopters arrived to the unit almost 10 years ago and today we give back a much safer, more developed formation. We had excellent partners from various units from the technical division and together we reached an admirable achievement,” Colonel Shimon, commander of the Aerial Maintenance Unit, said in a statement.
Israel refurbished the rotorcraft themselves for price-driven reasons.
“A new CH-53 sells for $150 million, when the process of extending its lifespan costs around $2 million per helicopter. If we were not able to upgrade the helicopters by ourselves we would have needed to pay much more – either by approaching civilian companies to execute the renovation or by purchasing new aircraft”, Lt. Col. Meir, Head of Aircraft Section in AMU, explained.
When life extension maintenance is performed in the AMU workshop, the labor cost is one half to one third compared to external alternatives, Shimon said.
Renovation work began slowly at a rate of several years per helicopter but was eventually reduced to less than a year per unit. The AMU upgraded the engines, dynamic systems communications, navigation, self-defense and flight control.
Israel refurbishes aircraft like this to meet operational demands without continually buying new units.
“When you calculate the amount of helicopters you need ready at any moment and the lifespan designed by the manufacturer, you realize you need to buy around 100 new helicopters each decade. We do not regularly buy platforms in these amounts. So how do we still answer operational demands? We extend the lifespan of our aircraft,” Brig. Gen. Ran Bashevitz, Head of IAF Materiel Directorate, highlighted.