The initial operational capability (IOC) date of the CH-53K won’t occur this December, a report from the office of Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) suggests.
Early testing has uncovered multiple design deficiencies that are needed to be corrected. Testers have discovered “airspeed indication anomalies, low reliability of the main rotor gearbox, hot gas impingement on aircraft structures, tail boom and tail rotor structural problems, overheating of main rotor dampers.”
As a result, IOT&E has been pushed back to early 2021.