– Virginian Pilot – The Navy started making plans in the late 1990s to retire the most powerful and crash-prone helicopters in its fleet. By then, several of the service’s MH-53E Sea Dragons – the only U.S. helicopter capable of towing a specialized sled through water to detect and clear mines – were approaching the end of their planned service lives, and Navy leadership needed to make a decision: Invest a significant amount of money to keep the helicopters flying, or develop a replacement. They chose the latter…