 In February 2018, Sikorsky signed an agreement valued at around 4 billion euro with Rheinmetall to team up for the German Air Force's CH-53G heavy lift helicopter replacement program, in which the CH-53K is competing against the CH-47F Chinook offered by Boeing.The German Federal Ministry of Defence was expected to issue an official request for information in the second half of 2018, with a timeline to award a contract in 2020 and deliveries to begin in 2023 for an expected order of around 40 helicopters.In 2009, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) said it would evaluate the new variant after it flies.