Iceberg Reconnaissance & Oceanographic Operations 



Reconnaissance Operations 



The U. S. Coast Guard International 

 Ice Patrol formally begins its seasonal ice 

 observation and Ice Patrol service 

 whenever icebergs threaten primary 

 shipping routes between Europe and North 

 America. This usually occurs in the month 

 of February and the threat usually extends 

 through July, but the Ice Patrol is flexible 

 and commences operations when iceberg 

 conditions dictate. The 1992 season, the 

 longest on record, ran from March 7th 

 through September 26th, 203 days. By 

 contrast, 1999 was an extremely light ice 

 season with no icebergs threatening 

 transatlantic shipping. Except during 

 unusually heavy ice years, the Grand 

 Banks of Newfoundland are normally 

 iceberg free from August through January. 

 The activities of the International Ice Patrol 

 are delineated by treaty and U.S. law to 



encompass only those ice regions of the 

 North Atlantic ocean that affect 

 transatlantic shipping routes. Fixed-wing 

 Coast Guard aircraft conduct the primary 

 reconnaissance work for the Ice Patrol. 

 Ice reconnaissance flights are made on 

 the average of five days every other 

 week during the ice season. The 

 mainstay of the Ice Patrol flights for the 

 past 20 years has been the Hercules 

 HC-130H aircraft. 



A USCG HC-130H long-range 

 surveillance aircraft equipped with a 

 Motorola AN/APS-135 Side-Looking 

 Airborne RADAR (SLAR) and a Texas 

 Instruments AN/APS-137 Forward- 

 looking Airborne RADAR (FLAR) is 

 used to conduct iceberg reconnaissance 

 and monitor the location of iceberg 

 threats to the transatlantic mariner. 

 U. S. Coast Guard aircraft are the 



IIP FLAR & SLAR RADAR Coverage 



,SLAR 



L. 30 NM track spacing provides 200% RADAR coverage of search area 



30 NM 



Track 

 Spacing 



Figure 7. IIP RADAR reconnaissance plan. 

 11 



