The U.S. Coast Guard has been at the forefront of helicopter development since then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King issued a 19 February 1943 directive, placing development of the aircraft with the service. In the wake of World War II, the Coast Guard maintained a fleet of rotary-wing aircraft that supported its missions and provided the nation with a maritime aviation search-and-rescue (SAR) component second to none in the world.
Over the past 35 years, the SAR model-based asset mix has acquired a number of additional missions, which include law enforcement and domestic fishing fleet oversight, counter-drug operations, and-most important-homeland security requirements, including interdiction and airborne use of force. Faced with these challenging missions and increasing fiscal constraints, the Coast Guard opted to upgrade existing helicopter airframes, the HH-65 Dolphin and HH-60 Jayhawk.
To accomplish this, the Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center has made engine enhancements to the HH-65 and is currently renovating the avionics and structure of both helicopters, nominally increasing capabilities. While a cost-effective means to extend airframe service life, the upgrades do not address the long-term needs for replacing aging equipment. It is time to begin an in-depth analysis of future rotary-wing requirements and replacements. Chief among prudent and cost-effective considerations is seeking a single airframe replacement to fulfill the missions of both current airframes, which will move the Coast Guard forward with emphasis on the goals of mission preparedness and fiscal and logistic responsibility.
The Baseline
The service's aviation model began to take shape in 1963 when Coast Guard aviation dreams of a flying life boat turned into reality with the acquisition of the HH-52A Seaguard. This was supplemented in 1968 with the HH-3F Pelican.1 These aircraft demonstrated both the importance of the helicopter and, according to author T. B. Beard, the beginning of "The Golden Age of Coast Guard Aviation . . . with the HH-52A and HH-3F flying from 25 stations located on the coasts of the United States."2
The HH-52A was a modified civilian Sikorsky S-62, the first turbine-powered helicopter certified for commercial use in the United States, and was capable of operations from both shore- and ship-based platforms. The Seaguard quickly proved its versatility by rescuing more than 1,200 people in the wake of hurricane Betsy in 1965. Later, in the Cuban exodus of 1980, the helicopters rescued hundreds of people fleeing by sea. The extremely versatile Seaguard served from the Arctic to the Antarctic on board Coast Guard ice breakers, acting as scouts for the ships and supporting remote scientific outposts by ferrying equipment and supplies.3 The HH-52 was a pioneer by expanding the scope of missions a helicopter could perform.
The 99 Seaguards defined the short-range recovery model, which was to reach out 150 miles, complete a rescue in 20 minutes, and return. The initial Coast Guard Air Station template was built around the helicopter's radius of action by Commanders Frank Shelly and Dick Penn, who literally took out dividers and struck arcs defining the HH-52's range.4 In essence, Coast Guard air stations were established solely based on the recovery range of their aircraft. The helicopter was retired in 1989.
The success of the Seaguard along the U.S. coastal regions created a new requirement for a longer-range helicopter, because the HH-52's lack of sophisticated navigation equipment dictated the need for fixed-wing aircraft support beyond 25 miles. In 1965 the Coast Guard determined that its helicopter capabilities should extend to 300 miles.5 This resulted in the addition of a second amphibious helicopter to the fleet, the Sikorsky H-3 series, which had been recently introduced into the Navy.
At the time, the H-3F version was equipped with the most sophisticated rotary-wing avionics in the United States, and "quite possibl[y] the world."6 The Pelican would come to define and fulfill the medium-range recovery helicopter role. The aircraft was capable of flying out 285 miles, hovering for 20 minutes, recovering six people, and returning to base. Its capacious cabin had provisions for 20 passengers or 9 litters. The Coast Guard procured 40 of the aircraft and stationed them with, or staggered them between, HH-52 stations.7
This helicopter's value was fully realized on 4 October 1980 when the largest peacetime maritime rescue began in the Gulf of Alaska after the cruise ship SS Prinsendam caught fire. Four Pelicans from Coast Guard Air Stations Sitka and Kodiak, an Air Force HH-3E, and two Canadian HH-46A Labradors responded along with several Coast Guard cutters-the Boutwell (WHEC-719), Mellon (WHEC-717), and Woodrush (WLB-407-and a supertanker, the Williamsburg. The tanker provided a holding area for the rescued passengers and two landing pads for the H-3s to ferry passengers and crewmembers to safety.8 The success of the rescue is largely attributed to the lift capability of the Pelican, which resulted in all 329 passengers and 190 crewmembers being saved.9
Another testament to the HH-3F's value occurred in a 1987 incident when two of the Coast Guard aircraft rescued the crew of the sinking Soviet freighter Komsomolets Kirgizii, 220 miles off the coast of New Jersey during a gale. An HC-130 was first on the scene and stood by the listing freighter until the Pelicans from Air Station Cape Cod arrived to save the freighter's entire 37-person crew.10 Without the Pelican's ample space, the crew may have perished. Overall, the 40 HH-3Fs operated by the Coast Guard saved 23,169 lives and assisted more than 65,377 people.11 The last Pelican was retired from Air Station Clearwater, Florida, on 6 May 1994, marking the end of amphibious Coast Guard helicopters.
The Current Generation
Today, the Coast Guard operates two rotary-wing airframes; the HH-65 Dolphin and HH-60 Jayhawk, which are direct replacements for the Seaguard and Pelican, respectively. The newer airframes have a similar radius of action to their respective predecessors, but they are non-amphibious and have significantly less cabin space.
In November 1973, the Coast Guard began developing specifications for an HH-52A replacement. A service-life extension was not feasible because of escalating maintenance costs and obsolete technology. A Coast Guard study recommended the purchase of an entirely new aircraft in June 1975. At the time, with no suitable production military aircraft available, the service looked to the civilian market for a replacement with requirements based on the short-range recovery model and further constrained by the Buy American Act.
Three proposals were submitted for the new helicopter acquisition: Bell Model 222, the Sikorsky S-76 Spirit, and Aerospatiale SA-365.12 Ultimately, the SA-365 was chosen after Sikorsky suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew its bid. The chosen aircraft was significantly modified to meet the needed requirements with the most significant being the replacement of the Turbomeca Arriel engines with Lycoming LTS-101-750s. This decision would challenge maintainers and pilots for the helicopter's first 20 years of service because of reliability issues and the engine's inability to meet design power requirements.
The Coast Guard looked to the U.S. Navy's ongoing purchase of the HH-60 Seahawk as a replacement for the HH-3A Sea King, to provide a similar replacement airframe for the Pelican. The HH-60's proven service record with both the Army and Navy, its availability, and the high cost of procuring a custom aircraft all weighed in the Seahawk's favor.13 It also was the only readily available replacement as aircraft such as the Sikorsky S-92 SuperHawk and AgustaWestland EH-101 Merlin were still in the early stages of development.
Legroom for Saving Lives
On 17 December 2000, the 97th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight, an additional helicopter crew was on hand at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for a ceremonial flyover. The consistent winter winds that Orville and Wilbur had once sought were on hand, and a little too strong for comfortable flight, but ideal for the making of a Coast Guard search and rescue mission. Offshore, the cruise ship Seabreeze, with 34 people on board, was taking on water in heavy seas and 60-knot winds. Two HH-60Js were dispatched from the air station in response to the ship's request for assistance. The first helicopter, CG 6031, arrived on scene and managed to squeeze 26 people into a cabin designed for only 6 survivors. The outside temperature was a chilly 45 degrees, however the inside reached triple digits with the crowd of survivors and air conditioning off to save fuel. The second helicopter, CG 6001, rescued the remaining eight survivors.
The aircrews' professionalism prevented any loss of life with their record-setting feat. "The Jayhawk, although a sizable airframe at 51 feet in length, has a cabin that starts getting crowded with ten adults. The one thing that the Coast Guard pilots miss about their dear departed H-3 . . . was its huge interior capacity."14 While the aircrews managed to rescue all passengers from the Seabreeze, regardless of how the passengers were divided, there would have been more people than each aircraft was designed to carry. Had additional assets been required, the only adjacent air stations were serviced by the HH-65, which would have been unable to either make it to the ship, or carry the 34 passengers to safety. Another HH-60J would have to have been flown from a distant air station, increasing response time.
On 8 December 2005, the motor vessel Selendang Ayu, a 738-foot Malaysian-flagged freighter, ran aground in the Bering Sea and eventually broke in two on the northern shore of Unalaska Island, Alaska. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak dispatched two Jayhawks to evacuate her crew after failed salvage attempts by the cutter Alex Haley (WMEC-39). An HH-65 was launched from the nearby Haley to provide additional cover if needed. Of the Jayhawks, which performed the hoists because they were the larger aircraft, one crashed during the first shuttle run because of water ingestion into its engine intakes from a large wave. Fortunately, the Dolphin was hovering nearby and recovered all of the HH-60's crew along with one of the initial seven Selendang Ayu crewmembers who were in the Jayhawk. The survivor later died because of exposure. Had the freighter's other crewmembers not gone down with the HH-60, they would have perished in any case because the HH-65's limited lift capability would have prevented it from carrying all 11 people involved in the crash.
At 0300 on 23 March 2008, the Alaskan Ranger-a large trawler and processing vessel-radioed a mayday, prompting the Coast Guard cutter Munro (WHEC-724), an HH-60, and an HH-65 to respond to a presumed sinking ship. By the time the Jayhawk arrived at the scene some 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, the vessel had sunk, and her 47-member crew was floating, some in life rafts. The HH-60 was able to hoist 16 people over two trips, but the HH-65 launch was delayed for three hours because it was out of range, hangared on the Munro.
Launched just before 0600 when the cutter was 80 nautical miles from the scene, the Dolphin was able to hoist five crew members and return with below-reserve fuel remaining to the ship. The Alaskan Ranger's sister ship, the Alaskan Warrior, rescued 22 people and recovered 3 bodies. One person was never recovered. Given the situation, the performance by all crews was exemplary. Had both helicopters, however, had a large cabin, more passengers could have been hoisted. Additionally, if the cutter-based HH-65's mission range had been greater it could have launched earlier and stayed on scene for a longer period of time before reaching a critical fuel status. Four lives were held in the balance.
Fleet Status
Despite ongoing modernization, three areas of concern face Coast Guard helicopters in the future:
- Limited growth capability because of a lack of cabin size and structural limitations of the aircraft.
- Platform age resulting in structural fatigue problems and ongoing parts availability issues with increased extension of service life.
- Cost of ownership versus platform capability.
Both the Dolphin and Jayhawk have served the Coast Guard well in their respective roles, building on the significant history of the previous HH-52 and HH-3. The HH-65 and HH-60, however, will reach the end of their useful service lives by 2025 and 2022, respectively, and the number of helicopter airframes remains the same as it was when the last H-3 rolled off the assembly line in 1973.
Expanding Demands Require Expanded Fleet
The rapidly expanding commercial need for transport helicopters in the offshore oil and air medical transport businesses have resulted in the development of several new types of helicopters. These include the AgustaWestland's 139 (AW139) and the new Eurocopter 175 (EC175). Each was designed from the ground up to efficiently move people and equipment. Either can serve to bridge the gap between HH-65 and HH-60 capabilities resulting in a single airframe the size of the smaller Dolphin allowing it to fit in all existing hangars while having the range and cabin capacity of the larger HH-60.
Currently in use with the Coast Guards of Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom, the AW139 has excelled in the maritime search-and-rescue environment. It was initially selected to replace the Jayhawk under the Integrated Coast Guard Systems Contract until the decision to update the HH-60Js.15 AgustaWestland is currently developing an anti-icing system and introducing a military version called the AW149. This aircraft has several improvements including increased gross weight and the capability to mount armament. A fully operational production and test facility for the AW139 exists within the United States at Northeast Philadelphia Airport and is available for immediate production and implementation.
The Eurocopter 175 is still in the concept and development stage with its preliminary specification almost identical to that of the AW139 in power plant, range, and design. It will have the capability to transport 16 people and should be equally as voluminous as the AW139. Eurocopter has already received more than 100 orders for the aircraft and anticipates several hundred more. Its development and implementation is several years behind the AW139, and its exact specifications will not be known until a prototype flights are completed later this year.
The implementation of a single airframe reaps the benefits of economies of scale by streamlining resources. While the replacement proposed may be more expensive to procure than current Dolphins, its operating costs are almost identical. Compared to the Jayhawk, procurement, maintenance, and operation costs are halved. Additional savings are available by focusing maintenance and training resources on one airframe rather than two. The interoperability capabilities of every Coast Guard Air Station would be second to none, with all units maintaining the ability to service the same aircraft. Assuming a replacement project began and each HH-60 and HH-65 was replaced on a one-for-one basis, the lift capacity of the entire fleet would increase by more than 70 percent because of the increase in cabin size of the proposed airframes.
Fifty years of experience has provided volumes of data to construct an accurate assessment of the type of helicopter model needed for the future of the Coast Guard. The large increase in global commerce, a population shift to the coasts, and a variety of new missions have brought challenges that early pioneers of Coast Guard aviation could not have imagined. Forty years of mission performance has demonstrated overriding needs of all Coast Guard helicopters: range, cabin space, and lift capability. With the current airframes reaching the end of their already extended life expectancy, replacements are desperately needed.
Major helicopter procurement programs take almost a decade from proposal to design to implementation, and the edge of this time frame is rapidly approaching for both aircraft. A single airframe concept is not without risks of putting all eggs in one basket. To mitigate this, a leasing program could be initiated to test and evaluate replacement aircraft through normal Coast Guard flight regimes rather than considering solely a paper contract. The best-value aircraft will become apparent. Whether it is looking for an overdue boater, stopping a drug smuggler, or airlifting thousands after a major hurricane, the Coast Guard needs a capable and spacious helicopter for the 21st century.
1. Initially founded in 1848, the Life Saving service provided aid to mariners in distress along the coastal areas of the United States. In 1915, the Life Saving Service merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard.
2. T. B. Beard. A History of U.S. Coast Guard Helicopters: Wonderful Flying Machines. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996), p. 148.
3. A. Pearcy. U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft: Since 1916. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), pp. 297-303.
4. Beard, A History, pp. 136-138.
5. Ibid., p. 145.
6. Ibid.
7. Pearcy, U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft, p. 304.
8. R. E. Johnson. Guardians of the Sea: History of the United States Coast Guard 1915 to the Present. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987), pp. 364-368.
9. Beard, A History p. 146)
10. R. D. McFadden. "Coast Guard Rescues 37 Russians from a Stricken Vessel off Jersey." 1987. New York Times Online.
11. Beard, A History, p. 146.
12. Ibid., p. 148.
13. Pearcy, U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft, p. 310.
14. G. Hall. "The Perfect Rescue." January 2002. Flying Magazine Online.
15. Integrated Coast Guard System or DEEPWATER was a 25-year program to recapitalize the service's equipment, including aircraft, ships, and logistics and command and control systems. Many of its contract programs have been taken over by the Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate (CG-9) in the wake of acquisition reform.