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USN HM/MH-53E in 2021

Pags

N/A
pilot
Neat, even some Q-24 love. Anyone know when the HM Shitters changed to grey vice black paint?
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Sequestration meant they had to water down the black paint to make a can last longer.

(No, I don't have the real answer.)
It's too bad they didn't have enough grey paint or enough red paint and ended up mixing them.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Power Point is dead! You now have to brief your boss with a slickly produced five minute video including a culturally relevant sound track.
 

KODAK

"Any time in this type?"
pilot
Neat, even some Q-24 love. Anyone know when the HM Shitters changed to grey vice black paint?

The swap started about a year and a half ago and the overall fleet is maybe halfway repainted - as aircraft go down to Cherry Point in the classic dark gray paint scheme they return to Norfolk in light gray. The worst part is that the new paint isn’t even the same as the USMC light gray; instead it’s glossy, which only highlights the leaking fluids.

I believe the story we were told was that the new light gray has improved IR qualities (to defeat a missile..?), but even as I type that it sounds silly. In my mind an MH-53E will always look right in dark gray!!
 

KODAK

"Any time in this type?"
pilot
It took an AF dude to tell a decent story about the HM / MH-53E community - very well done. Me wonders why the Navy's own PAOs can't do stuff this good:

Glad you enjoyed the video! Sam took leave from his day job as a full-time USAF PAO and spent a large amount of his personal time (80+ hours all in) making the video to help us tell the story of HM. Of course there are always little details that could have been cleaned up, but overall I think that he did a great job telling the general public about what we do.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
The swap started about a year and a half ago and the overall fleet is maybe halfway repainted - as aircraft go down to Cherry Point in the classic dark gray paint scheme they return to Norfolk in light gray. The worst part is that the new paint isn’t even the same as the USMC light gray; instead it’s glossy, which only highlights the leaking fluids.

I believe the story we were told was that the new light gray has improved IR qualities (to defeat a missile..?), but even as I type that it sounds silly. In my mind an MH-53E will always look right in dark gray!!
Thanks! I was going to guess 6-12mo ago because the tails don't look dirty enough to be a 53 but maybe the gloss helps with that?

I'm not a paint guy but I've seen discussion of glossy grey vice matte grey on other platforms. Not sure if there's a difference in survivability between the two finishes or other consideration.
 

KODAK

"Any time in this type?"
pilot
Thanks! I was going to guess 6-12mo ago because the tails don't look dirty enough to be a 53 but maybe the gloss helps with that?

I'm not a paint guy but I've seen discussion of glossy grey vice matte grey on other platforms. Not sure if there's a difference in survivability between the two finishes or other consideration.

Oh they still get plenty dirty real fast! The aircraft our crew just finished FCFing today is one of the new light gray schemes and has a nice mix of hyd fluid, oil, and dust from desert UPLs stuck on top of it all. Nothing a good 14-day fresh water wash won’t clean right off, but in the interim it doesn’t look as ‘slick’ as the dark gray. Just my humble opinion.
 
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