The Coast Guard is increasing the capabilities of its HC-27J medium vary surveillance plane fleet, due to the Minotaur mission system structure developed by the Navy.

The U.S. Coast Guard started final month the testing of the missionized configuration of the HC-27J medium vary surveillance plane. The prototype, CGNR 2712 and former USAF 09-27021, took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, on Sept.6, 2023, for the primary practical take a look at flight tailor-made to train this system’s Security of Flight and Security of Check techniques prior to totally continuing into the flight take a look at section.

The USCG labored with the Naval Air Methods Command’s Naval Air Warfare Heart Plane Division AIRWorks Workforce and Leonardo to enhance its fixed-wing surveillance aircraft fleet with improved capabilities to collect, course of and transmit info throughout maritime patrol plane joint operations. The testing is being carried out by the NAWCAD’s Air Check and Analysis Squadron (VX) 20 HC-27J take a look at workforce.

The Coast Guard is missionizing 14 C-27J Spartan aircraft that were transferred from the U.S. Air Force beneath the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act of 2014. As initially delivered after being regenerated from a preserved standing at Davis-Monthan Air Pressure Base in Tucson, Arizona, the C-27Js have been outfitted with climate radar and communications gear able to supporting transport and different Coast Guard missions.

The Coast Guard labored with Naval Air Methods Command to find out which extra specialised gear, akin to floor search radar, electro-optical/infrared sensors and processors, may very well be put in to reinforce and broaden the plane’s capabilities and effectively carry out drug and migrant interdiction, catastrophe response and search and rescue missions. The opposite medium vary plane of the USCG, the HC-144 Ocean Sentry, is present process an identical modification.

The C-27J missionization bundle is predicated on the Minotaur mission system structure, developed by the Navy, that the Coast Guard is implementing across the rest of its fixed-wing fleet to combine the specialised parts as a result of it provides important will increase in velocity and reminiscence functionality. Minotaur incorporates sensors, radar and command, management, communications, computer systems, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance gear and permits aircrews to collect and course of surveillance info that may be transmitted to different platforms and models throughout flight.

Minotaur is open-architecture and government-owned, permitting simpler and extra reasonably priced upgrades, and the 2 companies labored collectively to develop it to fulfill Coast Guard mission necessities. The system collects all the info from the completely different sources and integrates them in a single workstation to give the crew a complete picture of the mission.

Stefano D’Urso is a contract journalist and contributor to TheAviationist primarily based in Lecce, Italy. A graduate in Industral Engineering he is additionally learning to attain a Grasp Diploma in Aerospace Engineering. Digital Warfare, Loitering Munitions and OSINT strategies utilized to the world of navy operations and present conflicts are amongst his areas of experience.