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During the 1991 Ice 

 Patrol year, 151 aircraft sorties 

 were flown in support of IIP. 

 Of these, 62 were transit flights 

 to St. John's, Newfoundland, 

 MP's base of operations since 

 1 989, and 52 were ice obser- 

 vation flights made to locate 

 the southwestern, southern, 

 and southeastern limits of ice- 

 bergs. Ten research sorties 

 were flown to evaluate the 

 APS-137 Forward Looking 

 Airborne Radar (FLAR), and 

 27 logistics flights were nec- 

 essary to support and main- 

 tain the patrol aircraft. Tables 

 3 and 4 show aircraft use dur- 

 ing the 1991 ice year. 



Aerial ice reconnais- 

 sance was conducted with 

 SLAR-equipped U. S. Coast 



Guard HC-130H and HU-25B 

 aircraft. The HC-1 30H aircraft 

 deployed from Coast Guard 

 Air Station Elizabeth City, 

 North Carolina, and HU-25B 

 aircraft deployed from Coast 

 Guard Air Station Cape Cod, 

 Massachusetts. 



The HC-1 30 'Hercules' 

 aircraft has been the platform 

 for Ice Patrol aerial recon- 

 naissance since 1963. This 

 wasthefourthyearfortheHU- 

 25B to serve as an Ice Patrol 

 platform. Although IIP origi- 

 nally scheduled the HU-25B 

 as the platform for slightly less 

 than half of the 1991 

 ICERECDETs, the first HU- 

 25B ICERECDET did not oc- 

 cur until June 26 because of 

 the aircraft's involvement in 



Operations Desert Shield and 

 Desert Storm. Furthermore, 

 because of the severe ice- 

 berg distribution in late July, 

 the scheduled ICERECDET 

 platform was changed from 

 an HU-25B to an HC-1 30. 

 Thus, the HU-25B logged sig- 

 nificantly fewer IIP flight hours 

 in 1 991 than in 1 990, and the 

 HC-1 30 consequently flew 

 more hours. The total number 

 of iceberg reconnaissance 

 sorties was 52 in 1 991 , a small 

 change from the 53 in 1990, 

 but the total reconnaissance 

 hours was 282.1 in 1991, 

 compared to 256.6 in 1990. 

 This increase in flight hours 

 with a decrease in sorties is a 

 reflection of the greater per- 

 centage of HC-1 30 sorties in 

 1991. 



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