HITRON-10 and the Future of Armed Helicopters
The Coast Guard "Seizes the Moment"
By BRUCE STUBBS and DAVID NELSON
Bruce Stubbs, who retired from the Coast Guard as that service's director
of operations capability, is a technical director at the Anteon Corporation.
David Nelson is a maritime analyst with Anteon's Center for Security
Strategies and Operations.
"Eleven years after the Cold War, we're in a time of transition
and testing. We must use this time well; we must seize this moment."
President George W. Bush delivered that rallying cry about the need
for his top-down strategic defense review while visiting the Norfolk
Naval Air Station on 13 February 2001. Anticipating such a challenge,
the fifth and smallest of the U.S. armed services--the Coast Guard--is
already hard at work to give its aviation forces unprecedented capabilities
for national-security missions. Since 1998, in fact, the Coast Guard
has aggressively pursued a project--involving the use of armed helicopters
for some law-enforcement missions--that could have far-reaching consequences
for America's overall maritime security.
Ominously, U.S. sovereignty and security at sea are now under attack--but
not in the traditional military sense. Instead, the nation has in recent
years faced an array of daunting challenges quite unlike anything previously
experiencede.g., maritime terrorism and major increases in
arms trafficking, drug smuggling, and illegal migration. These challenges
respect no boundaries, have a predominantly law-enforcement dimension,
and have broadened the definition of "national security" in
both the number and complexity of issues facing the Coast Guard and other
federal law-enforcement agencies.
A Continuum of Force
To deal with these threats at sea, which are both transnational and
asymmetric, the Coast Guard needs more than its fleet of cutters of various
sizes, particularly to counter high-speed, agile, stealth-like surface
ships.
For the first time in its long history of maritime security operations,
the Coast Guard is turning to its aviation forces as the means to stop--and
to board, if necessary--noncooperating surface ships. This summer will
see the successful completion of the armed helicopter project when the
Coast Guard formally commissions its first-ever aviation squadron--Helicopter
Interdiction Tactical Squadron 10 (HITRON-10) in Jacksonville, Florida.
Equipped with eight helicopters, HITRON-10 will give operational commanders
a formidable operational tool with the capability to deliver both nonlethal
force and, if required, disabling fire to compel a surface ship to stop
for U.S. law-enforcement purposes. No longer will a threat ship be able
to outrun and evade a cutter or to ignore the verbal commands from a
helicopter to cut its engines. With HITRON-10 helicopters "flying
cover," disregarding a lawful command to stop will activate a "continuum-of-force" response
from the helicopters until the surface ship stops.
This capability--combined with other new nonlethal capabilities, doctrine,
tactics, techniques, and procedures--will transform the way in which
the Coast Guard protects U.S. maritime security and sovereignty for years
to come. The new capability is expected to be particularly effective
against the "go-fast" boats of drug smugglers who consistently
outrun and evade Coast Guard cutters.
The "Go-Fast" Threat
During testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in
1998, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James M. Loy stated, "It is important
for this committee to know that, in my estimation, the most significant
problem we have is the lack of surface end game capability in the transit
zone and the arrival zone. We are getting brutalized at the moment by
go-fast vessels." The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates
that go-fast activity has increased tenfold since 1995 and that more
than 400 go-fast smuggling missions are attempted each year. According
to officials, go-fasts now account for approximately 70 percent of the
overall maritime drug flow to America and for 85 percent of the cocaine
moved through the key transit zones of the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern
Pacific.
The typical go-fast is 30 to 40 feet long and is capable of carrying
up to two tons of drugs to ranges up to 1,300 miles at speeds of 40 to
50 knots--twice the speed of a typical Coast Guard cutter. Because they
often are designed with low-observable features and multiple high-performance
outboard engines--and employ sophisticated radar and stealthy tactics,
such as operating under camouflage or with night-vision goggles under
cover of darkness--they have become the conveyance of choice for drug
smugglers.
Another reason for the shift in smuggling tactics is that the traffickers
quickly realized that Coast Guard high- and medium-endurance cutters
lack not only the speed but also the sensors needed to detect and intercept
the go-fasts. Lt. Cdr. Jason Church, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot involved
in many drug-interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea, said in an
interview with CNN, "They [the go-fast crews] pretty much mocked
us and just kept going. Sometimes they wouldn't even look at us."
Provisional Stand-Up in 1998
Because of this problem, and because the Coast Guard estimated that
it typically thwarted fewer than 15 percent of go-fast smuggling attempts,
Loy took the offensive by authorizing the interim establishment of HITRON-10
with two helicopters to test the potential use of aviation forces to
stop and board non-cooperating surface ships.
The stand-up of the interim squadron in October 1998 was code-named
Operation New Frontier and used as a "proof of concept" test.
For the initial testing and prototyping phase, the Coast Guard leased
two Boeing MD-900 "Explorer" helicopters, redesignated as MH-90 "Enforcers," to
use nonlethal force to interdict suspect go-fast vessels. This phase
proved extremely successful during both day and night deployments.
Perhaps the most telling example of New Frontier operational capabilities
occurred on 16 August 1999 after a Coast Guard HU-25 maritime patrol
aircraft detected a go-fast fleeing into international waters to escape
from a Cuban patrol boat. When the Coast Guard's two armed MH-90 helicopters
arrived on the scene the suspect go-fast increased its speed and ignored
all sirens, hand signals, and radio calls--in both English and Spanish--ordering
it to stop.
Because there were no indications of the boat's registry, the helicopters
employed a range of nonlethal devices--including entanglers and stingballs--but
the go-fast continued its evasive maneuvers. The lead MH-90 ultimately
fired four sets of warning shots, expending 100 rounds of 7.62mm shells
from its M240 machine gun. When there was again no response, the MH-60's
specially trained air gunner, a certified marksman, fired two rounds
from his .50-caliber target rifle to disable the boat's starboard engine.
The suspect boat then stopped momentarily, but quickly resumed its northbound
course (on one engine). The gunner fired two more rounds to disable the
vessel's port engine. When the go-fast was finally dead in the water,
its crew began to jettison its cargo and other potential evidence.
Working with the MH-90s, Coast Guard over-the-horizon rigid-hull inflatable
boats (OTH RHIBs) from supporting major cutters arrived on-scene shortly
thereafter and boarded the vessel. The boarding team seized the vessel--plus
2,200 pounds of marijuana, five gallons of hashish oil, and three suspects--bringing
to a successful end the Coast Guard's first operational employment of
the full continuum of force.
Confluence and Courage
At a press conference on 13 September 1999, then-Secretary of Transportation
Rodney Slater, Gen. Barry McCaffrey (then director of the Office of National
Drug Control Policy), and Loy publicly announced the successful implementation
of Operation New Frontier and released the results from the first deployment
of the Coast Guard's armed helicopters. The use of armed helicopters
in conjunction with OTH RHIBs, the three officials said, had already
resulted in 20 arrests and the seizure of six vessels, 11,710 pounds
of marijuana, and 3,014 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $130
million.
"Today's announcements show a remarkable confluence of cutting-edge
science and policy-making at their best," McCaffrey said. "This
is courage, ingenuity, and technology. We congratulate the Coast Guard
for using a successful integrated-systems approach to field helicopters,
nonlethal technology, and command-and-control equipment to meet the threat."
In March 2000, the Coast Guard completed its proof-of-concept efforts
and started the process of standing up a fully operational HITRON squadron.
Soon thereafter, Coast Guard pilots, air crews, and support personnel
began reporting to Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., where the new unit
would be headquartered.
The "Power" MH-68A
As a follow-up to Operation New Frontier, and to bring HITRON-10 to
full operational capability, the Coast Guard formed a strategic alliance
with Agusta Aerospace Corporation in April 2000 and--in March 2001--announced
that it would lease up to eight Agusta A109E "Power" commercial
aircraft to serve as follow-on aircraft to the proof-of-concept MH-90.
An all-weather, short-range interdiction helicopter, the A109E--which
will be designated the MH-68A "Mako"--is fitted with state-of-the-art
communications, navigation, and avionics systems, including night vision
devices, a weather radar, and a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system
(which can record on videotape that can be used not only to support training
but also as evidence in law-enforcement prosecutions).
The 38-foot MH-68A will weigh 6,614 pounds and be powered by FADEC-controlled
Pratt & Whitney 206C engines. It will have a maximum speed of 168
knots, a cruise speed of 137 knots, and a range of 363 nautical miles.
It will be manned by two pilots and one aircrew and equipped with an
array of vessel-stopping weapons, including a machine gun, a .50-caliber
Robar target rifle, and various nonlethal systems.
Agusta already has delivered the first two MH-68As, which are now going
through a rigorous test program designed to fully adapt the helicopters
to meet the challenge of operating in a maritime shipboard environment.
The aircraft recently completed Day Dynamic Interface Trials--aboard
one of the Coast Guard's Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters, USCGC
Gallatin--that determined that the new helicopter will have a daytime
operating envelope similar to that of other Coast Guard helicopters and
will be cap- able of deployment aboard all of the service's helicopter-capable
cutters.
The MH-68A also has successfully completed a thorough Electromagnetic
Environment Effects (E3) Test, more commonly known as EMI tests. The
Coast Guard plans further tests, including night-vision-goggle Ship Dynamic
Interface Trials, to assess the logistics, training, and personnel requirements
needed to fully support the use of the MH-68A for the missions currently
projected for it.
The MH-68As are scheduled to deploy operationally this summer.
A typical deployment will involve two major flight-deck cutters, each
carrying one HITRON-10 helicopter and one OTH-RHIB. The Coast Guard's
tactical employment doctrine requires the use of two helicopters to ensure
that one is always in position to provide cover if the suspect boat attempts
to evade and/or run under the second helicopter. Once the threat boat
is stopped, the OTH-RHIBs launched from the cutters will carry out the
law-enforcement boarding.
Traditions and Revisions
The underlying operational theory is very significant to the Coast Guard.
Instead of the major cutter being on-scene with the threat, it will remain
beyond visual range while directing the mission to completion. The "active
phase" of the cutter's role is reduced somewhat by the use of helicopters
and OTH-RHIBs to carry out other phases of this traditional cutter mission.
In essence, the Coast Guard has developed "standoff" law-enforcement
tactics and capabilities that could be used to cope with the full spectrum
of maritime threats now confronting America at sea.
With the new standoff operational concept rapidly evolving into a major
capability, Coast Guard cutters will no longer have to engage threat
boats directly; instead, the OTH-RHIBs and HITRON helicopters operating
from well over the horizon will be the first operational platforms at
the scene of action. The traditional Coast Guard process--"surveil,
detect, identify, sort, intercept, and engage"--has been a continuum
since 1790 in both coastal waters and the open oceans, regardless of
the mission, and will not change, but the roles played by specific platforms
will be revised.
Of perhaps greater importance, the new standoff capability also has
the potential to significantly change the composition of future Coast
Guard forces assigned to other missions. By exploiting the speed, range,
and endurance of the helicopters and the OTH-RHIBs and combining those
capabilities with the complementary capabilities of the Coast Guard's
21st-century C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems, major cutters could be true
force multipliers.
They also would be much more effective than today's cutters, not only
in law enforcement but also in a broad spectrum of such other missions
as maritime defense, port security, and other national-security operations.
Although not directly part of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater
System program--the Coast Guard's innovative plan to build an integrated
system of ships, aircraft, and C4ISR assets to meet its deepwater needs
during the next half-century--the HITRON helicopters are in the forefront
of the development of new concepts of operations that can be used to
counter the threats and challenges that are central to the operational
requirements of the Deepwater program. They are likely, therefore, to
play a key role in enabling the multimission service to fully transform
and upgrade its platforms, systems, and operational doctrine to the levels
needed to safeguard U.S. maritime security throughout the first half
of the 21st century.
