The Coast Guard has awarded L-3 Communications [LLL] a potential $93 million contract to missionize the service’s C-130J long-range surveillance aircraft with a new sensor and C4ISR package.
Under the potential five-year contract, L-3 will initially install the Minotaur mission system suite on two baseline configuration C-130Js with options to perform the same work on three additional baseline configuration aircraft and the conversion of seven HC-130J aircraft that are currently operating with a legacy mission system. Production of the first aircraft is scheduled to begin in mid-2016 with delivery in spring 2017.
The Minotaur software was jointly developed between the Coast Guard and Navy, and is government-owned and operated across multiple platforms used by the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.
The C-130J is produced by Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The Coast Guard said that the Minotaur missionization involves nose-to-tail modifications to the aircraft to incorporate the radar, sensors, and other C4ISR equipment that enables aircrews to gather and process surveillance information for transmission to shore and surface operators.
The Coast Guard said it needed a non-proprietary baseline mission system because of the increasing obsolescence of the major hardware and software components of the legacy mission system suite. Minotaur is based on an open system architecture and can run commercial hardware products.
“The award of this contract represent a change in the Coast Guard HC-130J acquisition business model,” Josh Lyons, the Coast Guard’s long-range surveillance aircraft acquisition program manager, said in a statement. “This contract focuses on installation of the mission hardware and relies on the Coast Guard-Navy partnership to manage the design and logistics. This model should increase operational effectiveness and reduce overall life-cycle costs.”