CH-46 Sea Knight

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The CH-46D Sea Knight helicopter is a medium lift tandem rotor assault helicopter, used by the United States Navy for shipboard delivery of cargo, personnel, and search & rescue. The CH-46E is used by the United States Marine Corps to provide all-weather, day-or-night assault transport of combat troops, supplies and equipment. Assault Support is its primary function, and the movement of supplies and equipment is secondary. Additional tasks may be assigned, such as combat support, search and rescue, support for forward refueling and rearming points, aeromedic evacuation of casualties from the field, and recovery of aircraft and personnel.

The CH-46 Sea Knight was first procured in 1960 under the old designation of HRB-1 to meet the medium-lift requirements of the United States Marine Corps in all combat and peacetime environments since that time. The final production version was the CH-46F. In all, 524 H-46s were produced for the Navy and Marine Corps. The last Sea Knight rolled off the assembly line in February of 1971. The fleet is currently being maintained until a suitable replacement is approved.

On September 24, 2004 the USN retired the type, seeing it replaced by the MH-60 Seahawk. The USMC is replacing its CH-46s with the V-22 Osprey. The first V-22 squadron, HMM-263, will be stood up in March of 2006 and renamed VMM-263. The replacement process is expected to continue through the other medium helicopter squadrons, into 2014.