A US Government website shows that the US Navy is to negotiate and award a sole source contract with Sikorsky for the procurement of non-recurring engineering tasks and deliverable products required for a trade study to reduce or eliminate the risk of inflight fires and heat damage in the #2 engine compartment as a result of engine exhaust backflow ingestion on the CH-53E and MH-53E aircraft. Sikorsky will be awarded the sole-source contract on the basis that they are the only organisation with essential data on the design, development, test, and manufacture of the H-53 fleet.

There is no indication as to which incident(s) have caused the US Navy to feel that there is a need to formally look into H-53 fires

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com