Copters recalled from boneyard

[unhappycamper]

At Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, a retired Navy helicopter is towed off a C-5 transport plane. It is one of three copters stored roughly 10 years in the Arizona desert that were flown to Cherry Point to be rebuilt for the Marine Corps.
Photo by Larry Conley

Copters recalled from boneyard
By JAY PRICE, Staff Writer
Published: Aug 21, 2005
Modified: Aug 21, 2005 6:20 AM

CHERRY POINT MARINE CORPS AIR STATION -- Earlier this month, a pair of hulking transport planes touched down and disgorged the newest additions to the Marine Corps helicopter fleet: three MH-53E Sea Dragons that had been sitting in an aircraft "boneyard" in the Arizona desert for about a decade.

The civilian maintenance workers at Cherry Point's Naval Air Depot will clean, strip and transform the worn-out helicopters into the Marine version of the aircraft, the Super Stallion, a process that could take 20 months. This is the first time that retired choppers such as these have been resuscitated, and the challenges are unique: Not only have the helicopters been outside about 10 years, but the Super Stallion has evolved with continuous major upgrades.

Restoring the helicopters, which have been out of production since 1999, is an extraordinary step; but the Marines have little choice: They're running out of big choppers.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are taking a bite out of their deteriorating helicopter fleet, not just in aircraft lost -- six Super Stallions have been destroyed in crashes since 2001 -- but also in hours that the helicopters are flying.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/2741511p-9179104c.html

[sarcasmo]

1. I thought War Mongers loved handing out big Government contracts to

Military contractors.