The CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky, pictured below-right, is designed to provide the U.S. Marines with the largest and heaviest helicopter in the American military.  According to it’s WikiPedia entry, HERE, it “features three 7,500 shp (5,590 kW) engines, new composite rotor blades, and a wider cabin than previous CH-53 variants.”

And they will be coming to eastern North Carolina in 2017.  According to THIS article from the Jacksonville Daily News, MCAS-NR is getting a new $30-million dollar facility to:

… teach flight control repair, composite component repair …and everything necessary to keep a CH-53K operational,” said Doss Comer, the facility manager for New River.  “We can’t field the aircraft for the Marine Corps without this facility.  If we don’t build it, we can’t train to maintain it.  We must have a this new building to tend to the new aircraft.”

The training facility will provide classrooms, administrative space, general offices, hydraulic and mechanical rooms, tool rooms, training areas, avionics, wire repair and more.  Four CH-53K simulators will be on site at a cost of more than $60 million each.  The simulators will allow training for all Marines at the squadron level excluding pilots.

Good news, and welcome.