Coast Guard starts upgrades of HU-25 and HH-65 aircraft

Sea Power, Aug 2001

Upgrades now being integrated into two of the Coast Guard's principal aircraft are expected to improve their operational performance and to lengthen their service lives. The enhancements require new series designations for the HU-25 Guardian medium-range patrol aircraft and the HH-65 Dolphin shortrange rescue helicopter.

Some HH-65As already are receiving the CDU-9006 control display unit and the MFD-255 multifunction display unit in the cockpit and are being redesignated HH-65Bs. Other Dolphins will receive the Full-Authority Digital Engine control next year and will be redesignated HH-65Cs.

Nine HU-25Cs that are being used to intercept drug-running aircraft will be upgraded to the HU-25C configuration. The upgrade to the aircraft's APG-66 radar will provide a sharper video, greater detection range, fewer false targets, a lower failure rate, and reduced size and weight, according to Cdr. Vince Sedwick, USCG, in an article for Wings of Gold, official publication of the Association of Naval Aviation. The aircraft's new infrared system will offer improved detection range, a full-travel zoom capability, and a sharper video. An electro-optical sensor, new to the Guardian, not only will provide "wide-angle search, detection, classification, and identification of contacts during the day," Sedwick said, "but also will provide some low-light capabilities."

The HU-25C also will feature the Tactical Work Station (TWS), which the aircraft's surveillance sensor operator will use to operate the radar, infrared sensor, and electro-optical sensor, and to view geographic locations search patterns and to automatically transmit contact reports. The TWS is based on the Navy's OASIS software.

The Coast Guard plans to base all nine HU-25C aircraft at Coast Guard Air Station (CGAS) Miami, Fla.; the last of the nine is scheduled to report by mid-2002.

Six HU-25As are being redesignated HU-251)s with the installation of the new infrared and electro-optical sensors and TWS as in the HU-25C . The major difference is that the HU25A's APS-127 surface-search radar will be replaced by the APS- 143(V) imaging inverse synthetic-aperture radar, which can track 30 contacts simultaneously and identify ships by type. The first four HU-25Ds will be stationed at CGAS Borinquen, Puerto Rico, by the beginning of 2002; the last two are slated for CGAS Miami.

The HU-25 upgrades are expected to enable the aircraft to detect and classify targets at much greater ranges and from much higher altitudes, and thus enhance covertness, improve fuel economy, and reduce the airframe corrosion caused by low-level passes over sea water.