Armed and unafraid: Coast guard helicopters acquire machine guns

Sea Power, Aug 2003 by Burgess, Richard R

For decades the helicopters of the U.S. Coast Guard-looked upon by an admiring public for their rescue service along the nation's coastlines-carried no armament and comported in the manner of the unarmed London Bobbies of yore. But like bobbies-who took up bearing arms in recent years to counter increasing violence on London's streets-the Coast Guard's helicopters are being equipped with small arms to enable them to meet their new post-9/11 homeland defense responsibilities.

HITRON Jax

Actually, within a very limited scope, the Coast Guard began flying armed helicopters in August 1999 in the drug-interdiction role. Drug runners were vexing the Coast Guard by hauling their cargoes in go-fast boats-small craft that could speed at 70 knots and easily outrun the Coast Guard's ships and patrol boats and ignore the unarmed helicopters that gave chase.

As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the Coast Guard leased MD900 Explorer helicopters-built by MD Helicopters and designated MH-90 Enforcer-and armed them with an M240 7.62mm machine gun and a Robar laser-sighted .50-caliber sniper rifle. The helicopters also were equipped with night-vision-goggle capability and an infrared sensor. The machine guns were used to fire warning shots across the bow and the rifles were used-not to fire on the occupants of the go-fast boats-but to disable their engines and slow them down for interception and apprehension.

The MH-90s were flown for a year by Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron Ten (HITRON 10)-initially based at the Aviation Training Center Mobile, Ala.-and deployed in pairs on board cutters along the drug runners' routes. The results were highly successful.

HITRON 10 re-equipped beginning in late 2000 with eight leased Agusta A-109Es-all delivered by August 2001-designated MH-68As, which are armed with an M240 on a flexible mount, as well as a Robar rifle. HITRON 10 was moved to the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla. The unit-which has continued to rack up successes against drug runners-was redesignated HITRON Jacksonville on 19 May 2003.

HITRON Jacksonville also received an additional mission in May 2003: homeland defense against terrorists. During periods of higher terror alerts, the squadron's MH-68As will be available to enforce security zones around shipping such as tankers.

Armed Angels

The success of the HITRON's armed helicopters paved the way for the Coast Guard's decision to arm all of its HH-60 Jayhawk and HH-65 Dolphin helicopters with machine guns in support of the Coast Guard's increased homeland defense role.

The Coast Guard sought help from the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to design and install flexible mounts for machine guns on the helicopters. At the request of Lt. Cdr. Lorinda Couch, the Coast Guard's HH-65 system manager, NAVAIR's Coast Guard project coordinator, Robert Blevins, took on the task of designing, installing, and testing gun mounts for the helicopters.

With the assistance of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., Nick Patregnani, an engineer assigned to NAVAIR's Air Vehicle/Store Compatibility Division, served as lead test engineer for the installation of M240D machine gun mounts for the HH-60J and HH-65B.

"One unique aspect of this testing was that the HH-65 is a commercial aircraft, so it was not built for arming," Patregnani said. "There was never the intent for that until now. It presented an interesting challenge for us."

Because of a common airframe design with the Navy HH-60H armed helicopter, the design of a gun mount for the HH-60J was less complicated.

NAVAIR's testing of the armed HH-60J and HH-65B included ground fit tests, ground test firing, captive-carriage-of-fire tests, and in-flight live-fire tests. NAVAIR engineers also added flashing blue lights to the helicopters, as well as night lighting on the aircraft to illuminate the Coast Guard logo. The armed HH-60J is scheduled for vulnerability assessment in September 2003.

Potentially as many as 170 H-60J and HH-65B helicopters will be armed with M240D machine guns. Funding has not been fully determined yet.

More Power Required

In the case of the HH-65, the Coast Guard version of the Dauphin 365, the identified need for Airborne Use of Force (AUF) capabilities-such as increased range, vertical insertion capability, and the ability to carry weapons and additional electronic gear-makes the requirement for significantly more power vital. Adding armament exacerbates the problem of insufficient engine power that hindered the HH-65 for its search and rescue mission since the aircraft first entered service in the early 1980s.

The current documented power deficit of the HH-65-powered by the Honey well LTS-IOl gas turbine engine-is 23 percent, due mainly to weight gain to the airframe from added equipment and the implementation of the rescue swimmer program. Congress has, for years, appropriated funds to improve and develop the LTS-101 engine to meet performance requirements. Even so, Coast Guard data show an alarming increase of in-flight engine shutdowns that have been occurring. In spite of serious safety concerns and critical lack of power, the Coast Guard continues to fly its search and rescue missions in very dangerous environments with real risk to the lives of the crews and the lives of the civilians they are trying to rescue.