Less than one week after approving more than $24 billion in modernisation funds for the US Coast Guard (USCG), lawmakers in Congress are weighing limits on the service’s plans to reshape its rotary-wing aviation fleet.
The torrent of spending outlined by the Trump Administration plan known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” provides over $3 billion to the Coast Guard to support aviation modernisation.
That sum includes $2.2 billion for the acquisition of 40 new Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters, $1.1 billion for six new Lockheed Martin HC-130Js, and $266 million for the procurement of unspecified long-range uncrewed aircraft.
That influx of cash, which must be spent before the end of 2029, comes as the USCG has been pursuing a sweeping transformation to consolidate its rotary-wing fleet down to 127 aircraft of a single type from a previous level of 146 – representing a 13% overall reduction.
In the process, the service would retire all 94 of its Airbus Helicopters MH-65D/E Dolphin search and rescue helicopters currently operating and expand the existing fleet of 49 MH-60Ts.
However, lawmakers in Congress are now mulling limits to how many rotorcraft the Coast Guard can divest.
Under a draft provision of the annual Coast Guard Authorization Act legislation, the USCG would be legally required to maintain a rotary-wing fleet of at least 140 aircraft until the service completes an in-depth analysis of its long-term helicopter needs.
That evaluation must include an assessment of the type of helicopters (notably plural in the legislative text) needed to fulfill Coast Guard mission demands, a fleet mix analysis, and a formal analysis of alternatives to the consolidation plan.
Separate drafts being considered by the Senate and House of Representatives both contain the minimum fleet requirement, indicating the provision is likely to remain in the final legislative text.
The point requiring an analysis of alternatives is significant, as the lack of such a formal review has been a point of criticism for the MH-60T pure fleet initiative.
Billed as a modernisation effort, that plan would see the Coast Guard eliminate its entire fleet of short-range MH-65D/Es. The service says these have become difficult to maintain after production of the Airbus Helicopters H155, on which the MH-65 is largely based, ended in 2018.
Those short-range rotorcraft would be replaced by a lesser number of medium-range MH-60Ts, with deliveries of refurbished examples from the US Navy already under way as part a programme with Sikorsky.
Auditors at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) appeared sceptical of that concept in a 2024 review of the plan, particularly the idea that the increased range of the MH-60T can offset the impact of 19 fewer aircraft service-wide.
There are also potential capability offset issues, particularly around the MH-65’s existing ability to deploy aboard Coast Guard cutter ships for smuggling interdiction missions far offshore.
“The Coast Guard has not assessed whether the MH-60T helicopter best meets its mission needs under its plans to consolidate its fleet,” the GAO said in its report.
The USCG and its fleet are tasked with patrolling some 94,000 miles (153,000km) of coastline, including search and rescue, disaster response, drug interdiction and migrant interdiction missions.
The second Trump Administration has also made increasing use of the service for border security and migrant deportation operations.