March 29, 2019 —
The Coast Guard awarded a $21.3 million contract to Tyonek Manufacturing Group Inc. of Madison, Alabama, March 12 to procure 89 wiring harness packages for its MH-65 short range recovery helicopters. Once delivered, Coast Guard crews at the Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, will replace the wiring harnesses alongside previously scheduled work to complete Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), program depot-level maintenance and MH-65E modernization activities.
The wire harness is the assembly of electrical cables, which provide electrical power to and transmit signals for nearly all the aircraft’s systems and subsystems. The current wiring harnesses were delivered as part of the original H-65 configuration in 1984, and replacing 100 percent of the H-65 wires will result in increased performance of the airframe’s systems and subsystems.
The SLEP will extend the service life of the MH-65 from 20,000 to 30,000 flight hours – a 50 percent increase in service life, allowing the Coast Guard to continue H-65 operations through the fleet’s planned phase-out between 2035 and 2039.
The MH-65 Conversion and Sustainment Program is currently in the Obtain phase of the acquisition lifecycle and is nearing the end of its initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) at the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama. The results from this IOT&E will be used to inform plans to move into the Produce/Deploy phase in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020.
For more information: MH-65 program page