Coast Guard acquiring new aircraft, $45 million hangar at Barbers Point

In late October the Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter Kimball returned home after a 66-day patrol to the Bering Sea and Arctic during which it shadowed four Chinese navy ships — a guided missile cruiser and destroyer and intelligence and auxiliary ships — operating as close as 46 miles off the Aleutian Islands.

Around the same time, the Coast Guard, including the Honolulu-based cutter William Hart and a C-130 Hercules transport plane out of Barbers Point, participated in Operation Kuru­kuru in Oceania.

Australian and French navy, U.S. Coast Guard and Pacific nation vessels and aircraft acted in concert to combat illegal fishing during the operation, which saw 300 vessel sightings and 78 boardings.

In August, meanwhile, the national security cutter Munro out of California conducted a Taiwan Strait passage with a Navy destroyer — angering China in the process.

The Coast Guard in recent years has added significantly to its range and capabilities across the vastness of the Pacific with China and Arctic issues heating up, and Honolulu is again getting a boost in that department.

Air Station Barbers Point received its first HC-130J Super Hercules long-range surveillance aircraft in June, with two others expected by next summer’s end, the serv­ice said.

The C-130Js — the latest iteration of the workhorse military aircraft — have been upgraded with a 20% increase in speed and altitude and a 40% increase in range over the older HC-130H models they replace in Hawaii.

Long-range mobility is key to the U.S. military’s success in the Pacific. With that in mind, Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the Coast Guard, said the new Barbers Point aircraft are part of “a game-changing capability.”

“We’re putting C-130J airplanes in Barbers Point, Hawaii, replacing some older-model C-130H aircraft,” Schultz said in July while on Guam. “So the J’s have longer endurance, they have more sensor capabilities on board. You used to have to stop in Wake (Island)” or other places to get fuel. “Now they can fly direct.”

Schultz noted that “the region is important,” and the Coast Guard is “committed to that importance with increased Coast Guard capability and capacity, both.”

A new, $45 million hangar to fully enclose a C-130J for maintenance at Barbers Point was funded by Congress and now is in the design phase, said Petty Officer Matthew West, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s District 14 in Honolulu.

The Coast Guard’s overall $13.1 billion fiscal 2022 budget request includes $20 million for the procurement of spare parts and ground support equipment needed to transition Air Station Barbers Point from the older HC-130Hs to the new HC-130J.

In recent years the Coast Guard in Honolulu has received two new, 418-foot national security cutters — the biggest and most capable ship in its fleet — and three new, 154-foot fast-­response cutters which have greater sea endurance.

The additions are part of the Coast Guard’s biggest recapitalization since World War II. In great-power competition with China, the Coast Guard has become a Swiss Army knife responder that is highly prized but budget-constrained.

In December 2020 the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard released a tri-service maritime strategy noting that China deploys a multilayered fleet that includes its navy, the China Coast Guard and the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia dubbed the “Little Blue Men.”

In March more than 200 of the blue-hulled armed fishing vessels swarmed Whitsun Reef in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as an intimidating example of so-called “gray-zone” tactics short of war.

“The Coast Guard’s mission profile makes it the preferred maritime security partner for many nations vulnerable to coercion,” the tri-service strategy states. “Integrating its unique authorities — law enforcement, fisheries protection, marine safety and maritime security — with Navy and Marine Corps capabilities expands the options we provide to joint force commanders.”

Schultz in 2019 said the Coast Guard was “doubling down” on its commitment to Oceania, which he defined as the region between Hawaii and Australia, with increased deployments and the stationing of three fast-response cutters on Guam.

Last year Schultz noted the planned upgrade to C-130Js at Barbers Point, saying their “greater speed and endurance make the aircraft ideally suited for standing watch over U.S. interests in the vast Oceania region.”

The aircraft have advanced radar and electro­-optical/infrared sensors for search and rescue, law enforcement and intelligence gathering, and a range of 5,600 miles.

Even with the improvements, some see the Coast Guard budget as inadequate for a rapidly growing mission set, particularly in the Pacific and Arctic.

At a Surface Navy Association event in 2021, Schultz said the Coast Guard needed “sustainable annual budget growth — I’d say 3-5% over the next five years,” to close a readiness gap and with China’s coast guard expected to wield even more influence, National Defense Magazine reported.

A slide from Schultz’s presentation noted the world is entering an “era of coast guards,” the publication said.

Currently, Air Station Barbers Point has three older C-130H versions and one “J” model, with the plan to remove an “H” version when a new “J” arrives, the Coast Guard’s West said.

“With recent asset acquisitions, the Coast Guard is able to support partner regions with better technologies and more capable resources,” West said in an email. He added that air and surface assets “have been upgraded for longer deployment capability, a key factor in (District 14’s) expansive 12.2 million square mile Indo-Pacific area of responsibility.”