Jan. 12, 2018 —
Left: an HC-130J Super Hercules aircraft from Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, flies over Norfolk, Virginia, June 12, 2017. All of the service’s HC-130Js will undergo installation of the Minotaur mission system suite, including new workstations as shown on the right; the Coast Guard awarded two contract options to missionize two baseline C-130Js with Minotaur Dec. 22, 2017. U.S. Coast Guard graphic.
The Coast Guard exercised two contract options, worth a combined total of approximately $29.3 million, to L3 Technologies Integrated Systems Platform Integration Division in Waco, Texas, on Dec. 22, 2017, for installation of the Minotaur mission system suite on two C-130J Super Hercules long range surveillance aircraft.
Minotaur is used on multiple platforms across the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. Installation of the system, or missionization, involves modifying the aircraft to incorporate the radar; sensors; and remaining command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment that allows aircrews to gather and process surveillance information for transmission to shore and surface operators.
These two contract options will cover missionization of CGNRs 2012 and 2013, which are currently in baseline production at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Georgia, facility. Minotaur installation is complete on three HC-130Js: CGNR 2003, the HC-130J Minotaur prototype; CGNR 2008, the first to receive a mission system retrofit at Waco; and CGNR 2009, the first to undergo Minotaur installation from the baseline C-130J configuration. These three aircraft are among the seven HC-130Js operating out of Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina; the other four aircraft are operating with the legacy mission system.
Four additional aircraft are undergoing missionization at Waco: two are receiving retrofits, and two entered the process from their baseline configuration.
For more information: HC-130J Long Range Surveillance Aircraft program page