Iceberg Reconnaissance 

 and Communications 



During the 1994 Ice Patrol year, 139 

 aircraft sorties were flown in support of IIP. Of 

 these, 54 were transit flights to St. John's, 

 Newfoundland, MP's base of operations since 

 1989, and 70 were ice observation flights 

 made to locate the southwestern, southern, 

 and southeastern limits of icebergs. Fifteen 

 logistics flights were required to support and 

 maintain the patrol aircraft. Tables 4 and 5 

 show aircraft use for the 1994 ice year. 



HP's aerial ice reconnaissance was 

 conducted with SLAR and FLAR-equipped 

 U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H and a SLAR- 

 equipped HU-25B aircraft. The HC-130H 

 aircraft used on Ice Patrol are based at Coast 

 Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Caro- 

 lina, and HU-25B aircraft at Coast Guard Air 

 Station Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 



This was the second operational year 

 for the FLAR. The operational experience 



gained in 1 994 show the SLAR/FLAR combi- 

 nation to be a vast improvement in iceberg 

 identification overthe SLAR only system (See 

 Appendix D). 



IIP schedules aerial iceberg surveys 

 every otherweek ratherthan every week. This 

 is due to the ability of the SLAR and FLAR to 

 detect and differentiate icebergs in all weather, 

 combined with use of the iceberg drift and 

 deterioration computer model to track ice- 

 bergs in between sightings. 



The HC-130H 'Hercules' aircraft has 

 been the primary platform for Ice Patrol aerial 

 reconnaissance since 1963, while the HU- 

 25B has been used since 1 988. The extent of 

 the iceberg distribution throughout most of the 

 1993 season required the use of the HC-130 

 rather than the HU-25B. Thus, the HU-25B 

 logged significantly fewer IIP flight hours than 

 the HC-130. The total number of flight hours 



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Table 4 

 Aircraft Used During The 1994 IIP Year 



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