USCG receives eighth Minotaur missionised HC-130J
The US Coast Guard (USCG) has received its eighth HC-130J Super Hercules long range surveillance aircraft equipped with the Minotaur mission system suite.
Integration work was completed at L3 Technologies’ facility in Waco, Texas.
The aircraft, CGNR 2011, was originally delivered to the coast guard in its baseline configuration in 2017. It was outfitted with Minotaur software as well as coast guard-specific integrated radar, sensors and communication systems in a process called missionisation, after which the aircraft was re-designated as an HC-130J.
The Coast Guard currently has 15 HC-130J aircraft in either operational use or active production. The agency also plans to do a block upgrade for all its HC-130J aircraft.
The HC-130J fleet provides critical support to the US Department of Homeland Security partners as well as logistical support during routine coast guard operations. The aircraft is capable of serving as a C2 platform or as a surveillance platform to detect, classify and identify objects and share that information with operational forces.
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