Tamiya colour for US Navy CH-53

Just the CH-53Ds are getting the full upgrade (AAR-47, ALE-39/47, and the ALQ-157). The "E"s have the AAR-47 and ALE-47 upgrade, but no ALQ.

QUOTE: On the airframes side of things... I do my very best not to drill through wire bundles.

Gee, we avionics guys always appreciate it when that's the least you can do, lol.
Actually, the "bug-eyes" or "fish-eyes" that are being talked about are antenna-detectors of the AAR-47 missile detection system. The "eyes" are actually optical sensors that "see" a missile plume when a SAM is launched. Besides giving you an alert to "kiss your butt goodbye," the detection system can be linked to your chaff/flare dispensers to automatically salvo off a programmed set of countermeasures. But being a skid guy, I still don't know if our -53s have an IR jammer (ALQ-type device).

As a former CH-53E avionics tech I can jump in on this. The marines felt there was no longer the need for the "disco ball" on the helos as the disco erra was coming to an end anyway. Subsequently any CH-53 model after the D would no longer be outfitted to host disco night at the local flightline.

In all seriousness I have no idea why they phased out the "disco balls". The "Bug-eyes" (ALN-45?! something to that effect) as Ridle was talking about sense missiles but I don't believe the did much more then that. I will have to sit down, have a cold, cold beer, and rack my brain to remember exactly what was used in place of the balls.

Yeah, I've seen those all over the place, but not on our aircraft. We must have some kind of fancy IR jamming dohicky. I don't know much about the avionics side of the house. I guess I didn't have the ASVAB score. I'm an airframe/hydaulics mechanic. The only avionics I worry about is the stuff that attaches to hydraulic components. On the airframes side of things... I do my very best not to drill through wire bundles.

Ridle,

Here's a better photo: http://212.158.133.3/hwa/randy_smith/h-46/w_41282.jpg

The ALQ is an IR Jammer. The -157 is used on the 46Es and usually refered to as the "disco ball". On the Phrog they're mounted on either side of the aft transmission, mid-way down, below the rotor head. On the "skids" it's a -144 mounted just above the engine housing just aft of the rotor mast. On the 53Ds and on the USAF 53Js and 53Ms they are mounted on the sponsons just above the port and starboard nav lights.

Here's a link that may better explain it: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/mh-53j-dfst8909541.jpg
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/mh-53m_0007.jpg

If an ALQ is one of those "tin foil" boxes used to detect missiles, we don't have them because now we have "fish eyes". Just behind my head in my signature pic (right under the copilot's excape hatch) is a "fish eye." The Echo has 4 of them, two up front "both sides" and two at the end of the transition secion. They are used to detect missiles. I once heard a pilot say, "They let us have just enough time to kiss our <rear ends> goodby."

What's an ALQ, it's probably one of those things I know by a different name. I think it's good that the Navy is phasing out the MH's. It means more parts for us.

Pretty soon all you'll see is the USMC flying the H-53E. US Navy has plans to phase out the MH-53Es once new MCM suites become available for the MH-60S. Good news (or bad depending how you look at it) the Marine Corps will be upgrading their existing CH-53D fleet to last a bit longer.

Ridle...any reason why the CH-53Ds have ALQs on them and the CH-53Es don't?

huh, refueling probes come out the lower right side of the nose.
You could make either one of those kits into a Navy RH-53D. The Navy used RH-53D's for Anti-Sub Warfare and were painted Engine Gray. The RH-53D would have the fuel probe and aux fuel tanks. They're some cool aircraft. The H-53A to the H-53D are externally very similar. They differed in engines and avionics, but the main external differences are in the aux tanks. Many of the Air Forces old HH-53C's were later made into MH-53J Pave Lows.

Wow you know you're stuff and clearly I don't! I got the designations totally wrong, the two kits I have are the CH-53D "Sea Stallion" and the HH-53C "Jolly Green". Curiously they are the same kit just with the HH-53C having some kind of mast protruding from the lower left of the nose, I assume for refuelling?

Sorry Dan, but the US Navy doesn't opperate CH-53E's. They have MH-53E's Sea Dragons which are very similar aircraft. The external differences between the CH-53E and MH-53E is the sponsons and the rearview mirrors. The sponsons on the MH are much larger, they bulge up almost all the way to the engine cowlings. The MH's don't have any auxilary fuel tanks. The MH's also have two rear view mirrors that extend out from underneith the cockpit so the pilots can keep an eye on their Anti-Submarine Warfare Sleds. The Jolly Green Giant actually wasn't a CH-53.

Jolly Green Giants were HH-3's, which were a completely different aircraft family. However, Super Jolly Greens were HH-53B's, and C's which were very similar to the old Navy RH-53D's. If you have a chance, check out "H-53 Sea Stallion in Action (Aircraft Number 174)" from "Squadron/Signal publications." It'll show you the differences of the 53 variants. There are so many differences between the variants that they shouldn't even share the same designations. The H-53 family is large and complex.

Thanks for the info and pic. I have two kits, one is a Jolly Green Giant and the other is the CH-53E Sea Stallion (hope I got the numbers right!).

US Navy MH-53E Sea Dragons are overall engine gray FS36081, and I don't know what the best Tamiya paint is for that. However, US Marine CH-53E's have a tacticle gray sceme. The best way to represent that sceme with Tamiya Color is overall XF-20 Medium Grey on XF-25 Light Sea Grey on upper services. The attached pic is of a CH-53E Cowling that use to be an MH-53E Cowling. The dark grey which is showing through the light grey is the engine grey of an MH. The light grey is the tacticle grey a CH would wear.



What varient of the CH-53 are you building.