US Coast Guard receives eighth missionised HC-130J aircraft

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has accepted the delivery of its eighth missionised HC-130J Super Hercules long-range surveillance aircraft.

Manufactured at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Greenville, South Carolina, US, the aircraft CGNR 2008 is missionised with Coast Guard-specific integrated radar, sensor and communications systems.

The legacy system is currently installed on six HC-130Js that are operating out of Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, US.

The USCG is acquiring a fleet of 22 new, fully missionised HC-130J aircraft to replace its older HC-130Hs.

The HC-130J will be the last aircraft that will be receiving this legacy mission system as the USCG intends to upgrades the fleet with the Minotaur mission system processor.

Minotaur is a mission system software architecture developed by the US Navy and in use across multiple Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security platforms.

The aircraft is the third HC-130J to enter the Minotaur mission system production programme. Earlier in June this year, the USCG began the testing of Minotaur prototype aircraft.

The Minotaur prototype aircraft will be operating out of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and was also originally outfitted with the legacy system.

In addition to this aircraft, four other aircraft are currently under production and the base configuration variant aircraft is scheduled to begin later this month.

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Image: US Coast Guard accepts the delivery of its eighth missionized HC-130J Super Hercules long-range surveillance aircraft. Photo: courtesy of US Department of Homeland Security.