АНУ-ын ерөнхийлөгчийн шинээр ашиглалтад оруулсан гранит талбайгаас VH-92A загварын нисдэг тэрэг анх удаа албан ёсны нислэгээ үйлдэж, ерөнхийлөгчийг Нью-Йорк хот руу тээвэрлэв.
Цагаан ордны өмнөд зүлгэн дээрх 5-6 сая ам.долларын өртөгтэй уг нисдэг тэрэгний талбай нь хуучин VH-3D Sea King болон VH-60N White Hawk нисдэг тэрэгнүүдийн жинг даах чадвартай, илүү хүчирхэг хөдөлгүүртэй VH-92A Patriot хөлгийг тогтмол ажиллуулах зорилгоор баригджээ. Өмнө нь ашиглаж байсан түр зуурын металл тавцан нь хөдөлгүүрийн халалт болон роторын агаарын урсгалаас үүдэн зүлгэн талбайг гэмтээдэг байсан тул ийнхүү дэд бүтцийн шинэчлэл хийсэн байна.
Тус нисдэг тэрэгний талбайг Sikorsky компани санхүүжүүлсэн бөгөөд 2026 оны есдүгээр сарын 21-нд албан ёсоор нээлтээ хийжээ. АНУ-ын Тэнгисийн цэргийн хүчин VH-3D загварыг энэ онд бүрэн ашиглалтаас гаргахаар төлөвлөж байгаа ч VH-60N загварыг өндөр уулын болон халуун нөхцөлд ажиллах чадварынх нь улмаас 2030 он хүртэл үргэлжлүүлэн ашиглахаар болсон байна.
VH-92A хөтөлбөрийн хүрээнд нийт 23 нисдэг тэрэг нийлүүлэхээр төлөвлөж буй ч Пентагоны 2021 оны тайланд тус системийн харилцаа холбооны найдвартай байдал болон яаралтай тусламжийн үеийн бэлэн байдалд доголдол гарч болзошгүйг анхааруулсан байдаг. Энэхүү шинэ талбай болон нисдэг тэрэг нь ирэх хугацаанд төрийн дээд хэмжээний айлчлалуудын үеэр хэрхэн ашиглагдах нь тус системийн цаашдын ажиллагааг тодорхойлох гол шалгуур болох юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
President Donald Trump’s departure from the White House South Lawn earlier today marked the first operational use of its new granite helipad, and the VH-92A Patriot — not the older VH-3D Sea King or VH-60N White Hawk — was the airframe that carried him off the pad. The flight represented a dual milestone: the first time a VH-92A had carried the president from the White House, and the first operational use of the roughly $5-6 million helipad that was built to enable regular operations by the helicopter from this location.
Trump marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting on the South Lawn, using a pair of oversized gold scissors to sever a red, white, and blue ribbon before shaking hands with White House officials and members of the construction crew. Auxiliary power unit noise from the waiting VH-92A drowned out any remarks Trump may have made on the landing area; he instead posted afterward that the flight was the “maiden voyage” from the newly completed pad. He did not stop to take shouted questions from reporters before boarding for the helicopter’s first flight off the new surface. The VH-92A took Trump to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, with his final destination New York, where he will be at the UN General Assembly this week.
The VH-92A’s operational limitation in this context had been its exhaust and rotor system. Heat and rotor wash directed downward from the helicopter had scorched and torn up the South Lawn’s turf badly enough that the Marine Corps continued relying on the VH-3D and VH-60N for White House landings even after the VH-92A entered presidential service under Biden in August 2024. Trump has said the newer helicopter is roughly two and a half times more powerful than the airframes it’s replacing — powerful enough, by his account, that a single landing once left “half of the grass…sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”
For decades, Marine pilots set down on a simple metal disc placed directly on the South Lawn turf — a low-tech solution that worked well enough for the lighter VH-3D and VH-60N, but that pilots occasionally missed, tearing up grass around the marker in the process.
Construction of the new helipad began in late June but hit a snag in early August. As you can read about here, Trump ordered contractors to tear out and redo weeks of work — including a 100-foot-wide carved granite presidential seal that was already taking shape — reportedly over dissatisfaction with the pad’s appearance and the slope of the surrounding lawn.
The South Lawn’s natural grade, reported at up to 20 degrees in places, exceeds FAA heliport guidance calling for landing surfaces to be reasonably level. In the interim, Trump had been using the Ellipse, a park south of the White House, as a temporary landing zone — a workaround today’s flight presumably does away with.
Sikorsky, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary that builds the VH-92A, is financing the helipad project. Trump has said this is intended, at least in part, as compensation for not fully disclosing how disruptive the helicopter’s exhaust characteristics would be. The four-inch-thick granite, quarried in California, has been promoted by Trump as effectively indestructible, with a “million-year” lifespan. That claim, like similar durability promises made about his Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool refurbishment — which reportedly saw paint fade and its liner peel within days — has not been independently substantiated.
The helipad is the latest in a string of exterior additions Trump has made to the White House since returning to office, most notably two roughly 88-foot flagpoles installed on the North and South Lawns in June 2025. Trump said the building had “needed flagpoles for 200 years” since the only flag previously flew from the roof, and described paying for the poles — about $50,000 each — himself.
Landing on the White House lawn is only the most visible of the VH-92A’s issues. TWZ has tracked the $5-billion, 23-aircraft program’s string of setbacks for years.
A 2021 Pentagon testing report found the helicopter failing to meet the reliability, availability, or maintainability thresholds set for it, judging it fit for routine “administrative” runs but not for the emergency contingency missions the role actually demands. Central to that finding were flaws in the aircraft’s Mission Communication System, the secure link meant to keep the president connected to the National Command Authority in a crisis — a system a Pentagon summary said often delayed critical communications at the beginning of contingency missions.
Meanwhile, today’s flight doesn’t necessarily mean the older airframes are done at the White House.
The Marine Corps has said it intends to retire the iconic VH-3D Sea Kings fully this year, but plans to keep flying the VH-60N through at least 2030 for its hot-and-high-altitude performance. This means the ‘White Hawk’ could make occasional South Lawn appearances even with the VH-92A now cleared for routine use.
Whether today’s departure becomes the new baseline, or proves to be a one-off tied to the ribbon-cutting itself, will be revealed in how often the VH-92A — versus the older ‘White Top’ fleet — appears on the pad in the weeks ahead, particularly once the higher-profile test of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s state visit arrives.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
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