Sikorsky receives CH-53D contract from Israel for parts, services

June 21 (UPI) -- Sikorsky has signed an agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply spare parts and engineering services for Israel's fleet of Ch-53D helicopters.

The program is slated to last 7 years and will procure and deliver obsolete or diminished supply parts. Israel has operated the helicopter since 1969 and is the only remaining D model operator left in the world. Many parts are hard to acquire or unavailable.

"This program will ensure that the IAF can overcome a growing shortage of hard-to-acquire components for its CH-53D fleet to help improve mission readiness well into the next decade, and thereby extend operational life beyond the half century mark," Bill Gostic, vice president of Sikorsky Global Military Systems & Services, said in a press release.

"Sikorsky will work across its supply chain to manufacture dozens of critical and low demand components that we or our suppliers have stopped making, with the added guarantees of supply quantity, consistency of quality and price stability."

Sikorsky will deliver more than 80 different part types until the mid-2020s, the company said.

The CH-53 entered service with the Marine Corps in 1966, and has since been replaced in U.S. service by Super Stallions and V-22 Ospreys. It can carry 37 troops or four tons of cargo, and for medical evacuation can accommodate 24 litter patients.