Oct. 29, 2021 —
CGNR 2014 takes off for an acceptance check flight in Waco, Texas, before its acceptance Oct. 27, 2021.
The Coast Guard accepted its 14th mission-ready HC-130J Super Hercules long range surveillance aircraft Oct. 27 from L3Harris Technologies in Waco, Texas. The aircraft, CGNR 2014, will be stationed at Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii.
CGNR 2014 was delivered to the Coast Guard in its baseline configuration in 2020. It was then outfitted with Minotaur mission system software as well as Coast Guard-specific integrated radar, sensors and communication systems in a process called missionization, and redesignated an HC-130J.
The Coast Guard currently has 18 HC-130J aircraft in either operational use or active production. In addition to continued Minotaur missionization efforts on new aircraft, the service is implementing a Block 8.1 upgrade. CGNR 2014 is the first aircraft to have the missionization work and Block 8.1 upgrade completed concurrently.
The Coast Guard’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 carrying out many Coast Guard missions, including search and rescue, drug and migrant interdiction, cargo and personnel transport, and maritime stewardship. The aircraft is capable of serving as an on-scene command and control platform or as a surveillance platform with the means to detect, classify and identify objects and share that information with operational forces.
For more information: HC-130J Long Range Surveillance Aircraft Program page and Minotaur Program page