By Vicky Falcón
NAVAIR Public Affairs Office

A unique series of radar tests involving six different U.S. Coast Guard aircraft, with six different types of radars, a six-man life raft with crew and a man in the water will hopefully lay the foundation for the development of a new model search/detection strategy for the Coast Guard.

The test results, which are due October 1, will also be used by the organization to measure current radar capabilities and establish requirements for future radar acquisition.

The radar tests, which were held earlier this summer, involved one of every type of aircraft the Coast Guard flies.

Lt. Rob Barthelmes is a Coast Guard test pilot assigned to VX-20 at NAS Patuxent River, Md. Barthelmes, who was involved in the testing as test plan co-author, and project pilot, was one of at least 45 Coast Guard personnel who participated in the tests.

“Our purpose was to document the detection capability of our current radars, optimize our search patterns and develop a standardized test procedure for evaluating future radar acquisition,” he said. “The event went off without a hitch.”

According to Barthelmes, there were 61.6 flight hours recorded in the two day event, which accumulated more than 50 hours of data.

“We have a truckload of data,” said Tom Szynborski, a radar test engineer who works in the Sensor System Division. As one of the test plan co-authors, he is responsible for data analysis from this series of tests.

“Data is the most critical part of the program,” said Szynborski. “Accurate interpretation of the data is vital to mission success – and this is probably the most challenging project I’ve ever worked on.”

According to Szynborski, some of the analysis is being worked through a collaborative effort with the Coast Guard Headquarters Office of Aeronautical Engineering (CG-41) in Washington, D.C., the Aircraft Repair and Supply Center in Elisabeth City, N.C., and the Coast Guard Research and Development Center in Groton, Conn. – adding a joint and unique perspective to the test efforts.

“We’re presently in the data reduction stage,” said Barthelmes, “but we’re hopeful to have our results complete by October 1.”

Bob Blevins is project coordinator and works as a liaison between NAVAIR and the Coast Guard.

“Search radar can pinpoint small things far away,” explained Blevins, “while weather radar scan broad areas. We wanted to know when our calibrated targets (ten, five and one square meter each), the USCG six-man raft and man in the water would show up on each of the radar screens.”

According to Blevins, the test aircraft flew “racetrack” patterns finding the maximum range they could each detect the targets at different altitudes.”

“We did inner bay testing which was local and low sea state,” he said, “and then we ran out over the Atlantic where there were higher sea states for more tests.”

According to Barthelmes, another aspect of the testing was to record corporate knowledge.

“Our individual (aircraft) communities know their radar capabilities,” he said, “but we need to document that knowledge and then feed it into our new search and rescue model.”

The Coast Guard has two new radars already under contract – one for the new HC-235A Puffin, and one for the HC-130J. The HC-130H radar is also being reconfigured.

The six Coast Guard aircraft participating in the test included the Falcon Jet (HU25), the C130H and C130J. Rotary wing Coast Guard aircraft included in the test were the HH60J, the HH65C and the MH68. The NAVAIR range clearance AIRTECH C-12 also participated with a belly mounted USCG type radar.

For more information on the joint Navy/Coast Guard radar test, contact Bob Blevins NAVAIR/USCG liaison at [email protected].

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 – The USCG HU-25 Falcon with the new C-130J in the background at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in June for multi-radar tests conducted by NAVAIR personnel. U.S. Navy photo by Kurt Lengfield.

Photo 2 – The new USCG C-130J on flight line at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in June for multi-radar tests conducted by NAVAIR personnel. U.S. Navy photo by Kurt Lengfield.

Photo 3 – USCG aircraft (from left) HITRON HH-68, HH-65C and the HH-60J at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in June for multi-radar tests conducted by NAVAIR personnel. U.S. Navy photo by Kurt Lengfield.