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The Aviation Training Center (ATC) in Mobile, Alabama, on Aug. 19, 2024, took delivery of one upgraded MH-65E helicopter, CGNR 6577, the 90th and final MH-65 aircraft to have completed service life extension work and avionics upgrades.

Air Station Port Angeles, Washington, recently took delivery of two upgraded MH-65E helicopters, CGNR 6592 on July 19, 2024, and CGNR 6569 on Aug. 1, 2024. These are the 88th and 89th of 90 MH-65 aircraft to have completed service life extension work and avionics upgrade. The air station completed its transition to the upgraded MH-65E in January 2021; these deliveries enable the station to maintain a full complement of operational MH-65E aircraft while those previously delivered undergo regularly scheduled maintenance.

Air Station Miami recently took delivery of three upgraded MH-65E helicopters – CGNR 6582 on May 28, 2024, CGNR 6568 on June 11, 2024, and CGNR 6573 on July 1, 2024. These are the 85th, 86th and 87th of 90 MH-65 aircraft to have completed service life extension work and avionics upgrades. The air station completed its transition to the upgraded MH-65E on Nov. 3, 2020. These deliveries allow the air station to maintain a full component of operational aircraft while those previously delivered undergo regularly scheduled maintenance.

MH-65E transition Air stations that have completed the transition and number of aircraft:
Houston	3
Port Angeles, WA	3
Barbers Point, HI	4
North Bend, OR	5
Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron	12
Humboldt Bay, CA	3
San Francisco	7
Savannah, GA	5
National Capital Region Air Defense	2
Atlantic City, NJ	10
Aviation Training Center Mobile, AL	7
Detroit	5
Corpus Christi, TX	3

Video: Coast Guard delivers final MH-65E to Aviation Training Center

Video: Coast Guard pilots discuss conversion from MH-65D to MH-65E helicopter platform.

MH-65 Short Range Recovery Helicopter

M65E

The short range recovery helicopter performs search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security missions. Certified for operation in all-weather and night-time operations, with the exception of icy conditions, the MH-65 helicopter routinely deploys aboard certified cutters providing critical manned airborne surveillance and interdiction capabilities.

The Coast Guard is incrementally upgrading its H-65 Dolphin short range recovery helicopter fleet with new engines, avionics and other capabilities.

Why this program?

The H-65 Dolphin has been in the Coast Guard’s inventory since 1984. The Coast Guard is upgrading the helicopters with state-of-the-market enhancements that will extend mission capabilities and improve their reliability and maintainability. This conversion and sustainment project adds digital technology, including GPS and inertial navigation, flight control, weather radar and cockpit instruments. Since 2007, the entire fleet has been equipped with new engines that add 40% more power and airborne use of force capabilities, redesignating the aircraft MH-65s. Additionally, the Coast Guard is executing a Service Life Extension Project (SLEP) to extend the service life the H-65 Dolphin by 10,000 flights hours.

How are the upgrades implemented?

The MH-65 conversion and sustainment project is being accomplished in phases or complementary discrete segments. The Coast Guard upgrades the aircraft at the Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where engineers and technical authorities on the MH-65 product line install, test and evaluate the new equipment. Each segment upgrades and modernizes major components and sub-components and sets a baseline for future upgrades in the helicopters’ mission capabilities. When the current phase of the upgrades is complete, the aircraft will be redesignated as MH-65Es. A separate discrete segment was added for the SLEP work.

Program Profile
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Characteristics

Length (with rotor blades): 44 feet 5 inches
Rotor Diameter: 39 feet 2 inches
Height: 13 feet 3inches
Maximum Weight: 9,480 pounds
Cruise Speed: 148 knots
Range: 350 nautical miles
Endurance: three hours

Features

40% more power and higher performance from new engines
Radar and electro-optical/infrared sensors
Capability to conduct sorties from a cutter flight deck
7.62 mm machine gun and a .50-caliber rifle
Ongoing common avionics architecture system of digital glass cockpit instruments similar to those installed on the Coast Guard’s upgraded MH-60T medium range recovery helicopter

Discrete Segments

Discrete Segment 1: In this segment, which was completed in 2007, helicopter engines were replaced with digitally controlled Turbomeca Arriel 2C2-CG engines, adding 40% more power.
Discrete Segment 2: The Coast Guard purchased seven new MH-65 aircraft to identify and intercept non-compliant light aircraft operating within the Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone.
Discrete Segment 3: In this segment, added airborne use of force capability equipped aircraft with a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun and a .50-caliber precision rifle to disable engines on non-compliant vessels and provide fire support for Coast Guard boarding teams. After completing this segment, helicopters were re-designated MH-65C.
Discrete Segment 4: Obsolete subsystems were replaced during this segment, such as replacing navigation systems and gyros with digital GPS and inertial navigation systems. After completing this segment, helicopters were re-designated MH-65D.
Discrete Segment 6: Remaining obsolete subsystems will be modernized during this segment, including replacing analog automatic flight control with digital systems, installing digital weather radar systems, and installing digital glass cockpit instruments. After completing this segment, helicopters will be re-designated MH-65E.
Discrete Segment 8: This SLEP work will extend the service life of the H-65 from 20,000 to 30,000 flight hours by replacing five of the H-65’s major structural components: the nine degree frame, canopy, center console floor assembly, floor boards and side panels. While this phase does not introduce any new capabilities to the H-65 airframe, the upgrades of these structural components will enable fleet operations until the planned phase out in fiscal years 2035-2039. Based on current programmed usage, the 10,000 flight hour extension per aircraft will provide a 50% increase in service life, or approximately 16 years.