Drift
CH-53K King Stallion
CH-53K · Navy · Sikorsky (Lockheed Martin)
+81%
$18.8B (2005) → $34.0B (2019)
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Baseline
$18.8B (2005)
Current estimate
$34.0B (2019)
Cost growth
+81%
Units
156 → 200
Quantity change
+28%
Unit-cost change
+41%
IOC
2015 (planned FRP) → 2022 (IOC)
Schedule slip
+7 yr
Cost basis
TY
Confidence
high · reconciled
+81% (clean then-year, single GAO table). A dual-driver case: quantity rose 156 → 200 AND per-unit cost grew on engine/reliability problems — ~$15B of growth since 2005 inception.
Source: GAO-21-208 (Mar 2021), Table 6 — total acquisition, then-year; corroborated by CH-53K SARs.
Drift — an independent project by Aous Abdo, built from public GAO, CRS and DoD sources. Cost growth has many causes; a larger number is not by itself evidence of mismanagement. How this is built · Explore the data →