The Coast Guard said this week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has approved the service’s request to proceed to the produce, deploy and support phase of the C-27J acquisition and to move forward with mission systems integration of the aircraft.
The DHS approval verifies that the C-27 program has provided the logistics support and operational unit resources, including staffing, equipment, supplies and funding, to support the medium-range surveillance aircraft.
The Coast Guard is receiving 14 C-27Js from the Air Force to fill a gap in its medium-range surveillance aircraft requirements. Typically the Coast Guard would have three to five years to develop the documentation before DHS would approve the acquisition milestone but in this case the aircraft “came first” so the “program team had to play catch-up” and complete the documentation in less than 18-months, Rick Seitz, the Medium Range Surveillance Aircraft Program Manager, said in a statement.
The approval means that the Coast Guard can continue working with the Naval Air Systems Command to develop systems to enhance and expand the C-27J’s capabilities. The C-27s that the Coast Guard is receiving from the Air Force are regenerated from a preserved status and are outfitted with weather rardar and communications equipment capable of supporting transport and other Coast Guard missions.
The missionization package is based on the Navy’s Minotaur mission suite that the Coast Guard is deploying across the rest of its fixed-wing fleet. The Minotaur system software integrates the C4ISR equipment onboard the aircraft.
The C-27 is produced by the Alenia division of Italy’s Finmeccanica. L-3 Communications [LLL] is integrating the Minotaur system on the Coast Guard’s C-130J long-range surveillance aircraft.
The Coast Guard in October issued a Request for Information related to production and delivery of Minotaur mission system pods and mission system kits for the service’s HC-144A and C-27 medium-range surveillance aircraft. The services owns 18 HC-144As, which were supplied by CASA division of Europe’s Airbus Group and missionized by Lockheed Martin [LMT].
So far, nine C-27s have been regenerated and four are operating out of Air Station Sacramento, Calif. The other five are stationed at the C-27J Asset Program Office in Elizabeth City, N.C. The Coast Guard expects to accept two more regenerated aircraft this year.