The C-27J of Leonardo-Finmeccanica, with the traditional colors of the American Coast Guard (white, red and blue), will make its European debut at the Farnborough Air Show in London, among the main world showcases of the Aerospace and Defense sector.
The USCG (United States Coast Guard) is proceeding with the integration of the C-27J into its fleet of patrol aircraft and medium-range maritime surveillance or MRSA (Medium Range Surveillance Aircraft), carrying out anti-drug and anti-immigration missions, rapid response in the event of disasters or natural disasters and of course search and rescue (SAR - Search And Rescue).
The C-27J will use the weather radar, the NVG-compatible cockpit (Night Vision Goggle) and the communication devices already available to support all the missions carried out within the USCG.
The entry into service of the C-27J at the American USCG departments and its subsequent use with the modifications that will make it the ideal aircraft for medium-range search and rescue missions, constitute further proof of the excellent characteristics and flexibility operation of the aircraft produced by Leonardo-Finmeccanica. The aircraft will guarantee maximum commonality, at the level of avionics and propulsion, with the fleet of HC-130J Hercules in service and will be very similar to the C-27J FWSAR, Fixed Wing Search and Rescue, the aircraft proposed by Leonardo-Finmeccanica to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Regeneration and re-commissioning and installation of an effective search and identification system, autonomy, permanence in the area of operations up to 12 hours, speed and loading capacity of the aircraft produced by Leonardo-Finmeccanica , will make the C-27J the ideal solution to eliminate the current USCG gap in terms of patrolling and rescue in a maritime environment.
The American Coast Guard intends to equip the aircraft with an integrated surface search radar, electro-optical / infrared (EO / IR) detection sensors, a C4ISR suite (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), bubble viewing windows and a mission system called Minotaur, all this to improve the discovery, classification and identification capabilities of the aircraft's maritime targets. In particular, it will be possible to send images from on-board sensors as well as radar tracks to other Defense or Homeland Security Department users.
The integration of mission systems and tests on an HC-27J prototype will be carried out by the Minotaur Mission System Integration Lab (M2SIL) at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River of the US Navy. To this end, the USCG has already requested a collaboration with Leonardo-Finmeccanica, in particular for the installation of the electro-optical turret (EO / IR) and other modifications considered to be priority in order to accelerate the transformation of the aircraft in Search and Rescue configuration.
