Make Jayhawks from Pave Hawks

The Air National Guard and Coast Guard’s commitment to the phrase “So Others May Live” has linked the two organizations throughout their histories—from search-and-rescue cases and hurricane response to war. Between 1968 and 1975 in Vietnam, 12 Coast Guard aviators participated in an Air Force exchange program, flying hundreds of rescue missions under fire and over enemy-inhabited jungles. One of those pilots, former Air Force bomber pilot turned Coast Guard aviator Lieutenant Jack Rittichier, was killed with his crew while attempting to rescue a downed pilot in hostile territory.¹

The bond among those in the rescue community presents unique opportunities for synergy. In the early 1960s, for example, the Coast Guard complemented its 99 single-engine Sikorsky HH-52 amphibious helicopters with more reliable two-engine Air Force Sikorsky HH-3s.² In 1989, it acquired five CH-3E helicopters from the Air Force and converted them to the HH-3F Pelican configuration.³

Beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2025, the Air National Guard will be retiring its fleet of 21 HH-60Gs—its operational loss replacement (OLR) aircraft. The Coast Guard could once again improve and expand its helicopter fleet by acquiring these relatively low-hour, already rescue-specialized airframes.

Coast Guard Rotary-Wing Strategy

A core part of the Coast Guard’s helicopter acquisition/sustainment program is keeping the MH-65 Dolphin and MH-60 Jayhawk flying using the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP). The Coast Guard has flown the MH-65 since 1984 and the MH-60 since 1990. Recently, it announced it will extend the service life of the MH-65 by 10,000 flight hours and add 12,000–20,000 flight hours to the MH-60, depending on whether the aircraft is a newly manufactured hull or a converted Navy Seahawk.⁴ This strategy will help the budget-tight organization bridge capability and capacity until it can acquire a future rotary-wing platform.

Ultimately, the Coast Guard wants to operate a single rotary-wing aircraft type. According to Loretta Haring in the Acquisition Directorate’s Office of Strategic Planning and Communication, the service plans to transition to “a standardized, single-platform fleet of MH-60Ts.”⁵ The service currently operates 48 MH-60Ts and plans to grow that number to 127. The first phase of that growth is expected to include 36 aircraft. The Coast Guard says the program “has been authorized to produce the first 12 aircraft for this increment and will seek authorization from [the Department of Homeland Security] to produce the remaining aircraft at a later date.”⁶

The Coast Guard should look more broadly to source its needed fleet growth. While the Air National Guard’s 21 OLR aircraft would not close the gap, they could offer fiscal and operational relief.

Service Life Extensions

The MH-65. With the MH-65 no longer in production, replacing it with MH-60Ts is a long-term Coast Guard priority.⁷ The MH-65 SLEP will give the service 10 to 15 years to make the transition, but not without some risk.⁸ The MH-65 provides an aviation capability for smaller cutters that cannot fit the MH-60, but as the MH-65 fleet is reduced, parts and maintenance specialists will become harder to find. A slow drawdown allows the service to balance aviation capability against operational risk, but eventually the reduction in MH-65 airframes, parts, crewing, and training will tip the scale, at which point the change to a single platform will need to be accelerated. The OLR fleet can provide the needed flexibility to maintain the right fleet balance in the near- and midterm.

The MH-60. The Coast Guard is completing a SLEP on 45 existing MH-60Ts to sustain fleet operations through the 2040s. It awarded Sikorsky a $374 million contract to deliver newly manufactured airframes—or about $8.3 million per unit.⁹ These hulls will be delivered in the MH-60T configuration, but some conversion activities, including replacement of rotors and electrical rewiring, will be completed at the Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center (ALC) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

While the ALC’s motto is “We Keep ’Em Flying”—and it does a tremendous job—additional people, funding, and equipment resources eventually must follow. The Sikorsky contract calls for delivery of 12 airframes a year, which might be the ALC’s maximum MH-60 throughput.

The OLR fleet also would require depot-level work to convert them to Jayhawks, which likely would be completed at the ALC and require additional resourcing for the center. But using the OLR aircraft could offer some cost savings and help provide needed capability until the anticipated transition of all air stations to the MH-60T in the early 2040s.

Air Force OLR Program

The Air Force began the OLR program to replace aircraft lost in combat since 9/11 and as a stopgap until the arrival of the new HH-60W.

In 2015–16, the Air Force acquired 21 Army UH-60Ls and converted them to HH-60G Pave Hawks. The service ensured the helicopters were “well-maintained, structurally sound aircraft with no systemic maintenance problems,” and the program office and conversion contractor integrated all the modifications that had been implemented in the HH-60G fleet, including several system upgrades just being introduced. These included color weather radar, improved tactical air navigation, an automatic direction finder, and a digital intercommunication system.¹⁰ With the fielding of the Whiskey program underway, the OLR fleet now is set to retire beginning in FY25.

Converting an HH-60G to an MH-60T would of course require a significant aeronautical review. However, the OLR aircraft typically average less than 3,500 airframe hours and 1,800 engine hours, meaning they have significant service life remaining—as much as 8,500 hours. In addition, the OLR aircraft were designed to operate in the marine environment.

An April 2024 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report suggests the Coast Guard’s planned shift from a fleet of 146 short- and medium-range helicopters to 127 medium-range helicopters might not give it enough capacity to meet mission demand.¹¹ GAO recommends a fleet mix analysis be completed, along with an analysis of alternatives. Such an analysis should consider the OLR fleet. The OLR fleet with a full conversion—or even a smaller conversion (e.g., limited shipboard operations capability)—could yield significant flexibility and savings and give the Coast Guard time to consider long-term acquisition priorities and mission execution.

Lessons from a Parallel Air Force Process

The HH-60G Pave Hawk was the Air Force’s proven combat search-and-rescue aircraft for more than 30 years, and its mission was called “a moral imperative” by more than one senior leader. Nevertheless, it took several years to determine a way forward for its replacement. Considering the political, financial, and technical factors that delayed the HH-60G replacement, three ideas should frame the Coast Guard’s fleet transition:

 • A replacement for an existing aircraft spans not just a single service, but the entire joint force within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. This should be a consideration when making a multibillion-dollar platform acquisition.¹²

 • Operational and sustainment costs can be lower when an aircraft is operated by multiple services.

 • Potential efficiencies can be realized at scale when an aircraft is operated by multiple services.

A Call to Action

A 2022 GAO study examined 49 aircraft across the joint force in 2011–21 and found “only four met their mission capability goals in a majority of those years. Causal factors included aging aircraft, maintenance-related issues, and supply support.”¹³ This report is a call for the joint force to revisit how it procures and sustains aircraft. Transferring the Air Force HH-60G fleet to the Coast Guard would ease time pressure on the acquisition process and speed achievement of initial operational capability. In addition, the HH-60Gs’ mission capability rates are based on operational use, not projections or forecasts, and the airframe already is operated by multiple services within the joint force. Supply chains, technical guidance, training venues, and operational history will not have to be figured out from scratch. Finally, the Air Force has approximately 112 HH-60Gs, which could provide nearly 90 percent of the medium-range helicopter fleet the Coast Guard requires.¹⁴

After almost a decade of debate, the Air Force transitioned from the HH-60G to the HH-60W. An option not available to the Air Force at that time was transitioning to an aircraft already operating in the joint force. The Coast Guard has an opportunity to accelerate change and transition to a well-maintained, known airframe, saving time, increasing mission capability rates, and benefiting from the efficiencies of an aircraft operated by multiple services. It should investigate this option.

The OLR aircraft could continue to save lives. A fitting tribute would be to name the first 12 airframes for the Coast Guard pilots who flew in Vietnam. After all, “So Others May Live” is about saving lives, regardless of the color of the aircraft executing the mission.