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The U.S. Coast Guard held a ceremony Friday at Barbers Point Air Station to mark its official transition from the C-130H aircraft, which has flown off base since 1984, to the new C-130J.
“As today we close the C-130H chapter in Coast Guard aviation history here at Barbers Point, we open a new chapter with the arrival of the C-130J, a more performing in every way,” air station commander Captain John Rivers said in remarks. “It’s faster, stronger, more fuel efficient, capable of carrying more weight, getting in and out of austere places and staying on the scene longer.”
After nearly five decades, the Model H was beginning to show its age, according to members of the Coast Guard. Operating in the Pacific is demanding, and Coast Guard District 14, headquartered in Honolulu, spans 14.4 million square miles of vast blue ocean.
In addition to providing search and rescue and law enforcement support to the Hawaiian Islands and U.S. Pacific Island Territories, the Coast Guard is often called upon by authorities and mariners from other Pacific Island nations. , many of which do not have coast guards of their own.
“There are a lot of (search and rescue) cases we’re responding to in Micronesia and Guam, and the Model H didn’t quite have the range to be able to get to Guam on a regular basis,” the pilot said. Lt. Cmdr. Scott Handin. “This aircraft can get to Guam in one leg, so our response time is shortened, especially for search and rescue missions in the Western Pacific.”
The Coast Guard has historically struggled to secure funding and new equipment, given what it has, as Congress has lavished funds on other military branches. But in recent years, concerns about rampant illegal fishing and China’s growing influence in the Pacific have prompted efforts to bolster the small service’s footprint in the region.
The first of the new Model J aircraft arrived at Barbers Point in June 2021. Congress also approved funding for a new $45 million maintenance hangar at the base for the new aircraft. In total, Barbers Point received three of the aircraft.
“It’s like a completely different plane,” Handlin said. “Honestly, this thing is like a C-130-shaped computer.”
Although the new aircraft significantly improves the range of the Coast Guard, those who work with it admit that the transition is not without its challenges.
“You would think it’s as simple as buying a brand new car and everything is perfect, but you have to have maintainers and flight crew that now have to be trained on the plane,” Handlin said. “So there’s a period where we kind of have a lack of qualified people to pilot it.”
Among the plane’s key new features are improved cameras and sensors and the ability to transmit what they see in real time, which pilots say was a game-changer.
“(Before) we had to come back, land, burn everything to a DVD and print it out,” said pilot Lt. Kevin Carmichael. “Now we can actually push imagery directly from the plane via data links, bringing us into the modern century and also helping planners at home.”
Among the priorities of the Coast Guard in the Pacific is the monitoring of illegal and unreported fishing. In 2020, then Coast Guard Commander Adm. Karl Schultz, who was replaced on Wednesday by Adm. Linda Fagan, said overfishing has overtaken piracy as the No. 1 threat to ocean security, due to the damage it causes to coastal economies and food. Security.
But crimes at sea are often difficult to document and even harder to enforce. It can be difficult to know who owns a ship, where it is carried and who has the power to act. Coast Guard pilots said the ability to broadcast real-time information increases decision-makers’ ability to navigate these complexities.
“We are better able to effectively prosecute illegal activities, whether it’s drug or human trafficking or illegal fishing activities,” Handlin said.
In early December, Palauan officials asked the US Coast Guard to help them track the Da Yang Hao, a Chinese surveillance vessel that the Palauan government said entered its waters illegally in late November. An HC-130J based at Barbers Point flew to Palau and made radio contact with the ship’s crew, who told the Americans they were expecting a storm.
Prior to cruising Palauan waters, the vessel was spotted passing through the maritime territories of India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The Chinese government is known to use a variety of ostensibly civilian ships for military and intelligence-gathering missions, though the scope of these efforts is the subject of intense debate among analysts.
“We were able to go out and get some footage, and that footage was on the commander’s desk the same day, and he was actually able to share it with regional partners…and keep them updated on what’s going on in their area. “, Carmichael said. “The old plane would have taken several days to get there. And then he would have had this delay to remove the images.
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