April 29, 2019 —
The Coast Guard’s 13th C-130J takes off from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, Georgia, on April 10, 2019. CGNR 2013 will perform warranty and test flights at Elizabeth City, North Carolina until April 30, 2019. CGNR 2013 will later be outfitted with Minotaur software as well as Coast Guard-specific integrated radar, sensors and communication systems in a process called missionization. Photo by Thinh D. Nguyen, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
The Coast Guard accepted its 13th C-130J Super Hercules long range surveillance aircraft April 10, 2019, from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Marietta, Georgia, facility.
The aircraft was delivered to the Coast Guard in its baseline configuration and flown to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It will be inducted into the Minotaur mission system suite modification program at L3 Technologies’ Integrated Systems Platform Integration Division in Waco, Texas, April 30. In this program, CGNR 2013 will be outfitted with Minotaur software as well as Coast Guard-specific integrated radar, sensors and communication systems in a process called missionization, after which the aircraft will be redesignated as an HC-130J.
The Coast Guard currently has 16 HC-130J aircraft in either operational use or active production. In addition to continued Minotaur missionization efforts on new aircraft, the Coast Guard has plans to do a block upgrade for all its HC-130J aircraft.
The service’s fleet of HC-130Js is the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) largest airlift asset, providing critical support to DHS partners as well as logistical support during routine Coast Guard operations.
For more information: HC-130J program page and Minotaur program page