of the Limit of All known Ice (LAKI), thus 

 requiring coverage of a large area of ocean 

 despite a sparse iceberg population. 



Coast Guard aircraft provided the 

 primary means of detecting icebergs in the 

 vicinity of the Grand Banks. To conduct 

 iceberg reconnaissance, IIP used a Coast Guard 

 HC-130H long-range aircraft equipped with the 

 Motorola AN/APS- 135 Side-Looking Airborne 

 Radar (SLAR) and the Texas Instruments 

 AN/APS- 137 Forward-Looking Airborne 

 Radar (FLAR). Ice Patrol began using SLAR in 



2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 



■ Patrol Hours ■ Transit Hours 

 □ Research Hours ■ Logistics Hours 



Figure 8. Breakdown of flight hours (2001-2005) 



1983, FLAR in 1993, and incorporated the 

 Maritime Surveillance System 5000 with 

 SLAR in 2000. 



After a mishap involving a U.S. 

 Forestry Service HC-130H in 2002, 

 comprehensive inspections identified problems 

 with the aircraft's center wing-support 

 structure. As a result, in 2005, significant 

 limitations were placed on the 1500 scries HC- 

 130H aircraft, whose patrol-length maximum 

 for IIP operations was reduced from 1,700 nm 

 to 1,200 nm in excellent-moderate weather and 

 900 nm in moderate-marginal weather. These 

 restrictions will continue until the affected 

 airframes are inspected. 



Environmental conditions on the Grand 

 Banks permitted adequate visibility (>10 nm) 

 only 37% of the time during iceberg 

 reconnaissance. Consequently, Ice Patrol relied 

 heavily on its two airborne radar systems to 

 detect and identify icebergs in cloud cover and 



i- i- i- y- cm cm 



cm eg cm 



I Hours 



•Icebergs 



Figure 9. Flight hours versus icebergs south of 

 48°N (1996-2005) 



fog. The combination of SLAR and FLAR 

 enabled detection and identification of icebergs 

 in pervasive low-visibility conditions, 

 minimizing the flight hours necessary to 

 accurately monitor the iceberg population. In 

 addition, the SLAR-FLAR combination 

 allowed IIP to use 30 nm track spacing and 

 provide 200% radar coverage on each patrol 

 despite poor visibility (Figure 10). A detailed 

 description of HP's reconnaissance strategy is 

 provided at http://www.uscg.mil/ 

 lantarca/i ip/F AQ/Rec onnOp 1 . shtml . 



Identifying the various types of targets 

 on the Grand Banks is a continual challenge for 

 IIP reconnaissance. Frequently, visibility is 

 poor and targets arc often identified based 



■2 



■vSfost John's, Newfoundland 



FLAR & SLAR Radar Coverage 



SLAR 



30 NM track spacing provides 200% radar 

 coverage of search area 



(W \A Al 30 NM 



[Track Spacing 



Figure 10. Radar reconnaissance plan 



