The Israeli Air Force attacked rocket and mortar launchers throughout the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman)
Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar decided today (Friday) to shut down the Yas'our helicopter system. This was due to a technical malfunction discovered in one of the helicopters during a routine training exercise on Tuesday night. The faulty helicopter landed at a base in central Israel and no injuries were reported in the incident.
A military official said the helicopter's malfunction was due to a lack of air supply to the engine, which subsequently overheated. "The pilots discovered the malfunction while flying over the sea, closed one engine in real time and landed with the other engine," he said. "It was decided to increase testing of all helicopters in the array. They discovered damage to the engine itself, but we don't know what caused what, so it was decided to ground until the circumstances are clarified."
The IDF purchased a new CH53K transport helicopter to replace the old Yas'our helicopter. However, due to delays in the selection of aircraft, the Air Force was forced to conduct strict controls and ongoing maintenance at high costs for the helicopter array.
Yasour helicopter (Photo: official website, Sikorsky - Lockheed Martin)
The cost of the CH53K helicopter is around $25 million, not including simulators, spare parts and related systems. The helicopter is almost twice as expensive as the Chinook helicopter that lost the competition. According to IAF sources, what was decisive in the eyes of the IAF commander, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, were several main things: cheap maintenance costs over 11 years, an estimated flight hour of $175,2, the helicopter's speed exceeding 300 knots thanks to three powerful engines in accordance with the worldwide trend of purchasing high-speed helicopters, a radius of operation that ranges around 12,53 km without refueling and enables special commando operations very deep in enemy territory, An external carrying capacity of 53 tons – twice as much as a helicopter, refueling capability that upgrades flight ranges, and a fly-by-wire system – a flight control system in which the aircraft's steering devices are neither controlled by a computer nor by a pilot.
The purpose of the future heavy transport helicopter includes flying special forces, flying vehicles, evacuating the wounded, land and sea rescue, landing commandos on vessels, operations in complex areas such as built-up and mountainous areas, and flying VIPs.
Despite the festivity surrounding the choice of the helicopter, there was quite a bit of criticism of the CH669K helicopter, especially in light of its high costs, the fact that it is a very new helicopter that has not undergone operational immersions unlike the much cheaper and older Chinook helicopter. The CH<>K is only externally similar to Yasour, but it is a larger, and brand new helicopter. There were also aircrew members who claimed that it was literally larger than the size of the IDF, the price and power of its engines, which would be a challenge for the rescue unit in the <>th Airplane, which also had to be rescued with an external cable to the helicopter.
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