detect and identify icebergs in pervasive 

 low visibility conditions minimizes the flight 

 hours required to accurately determine the 

 LAKI. The radar combination allows IIP to 

 use 30 nm track spacing. The C-130 with 

 SLAR and FLAR covers a large ocean 

 area while providing 200% radar coverage 

 (Figure 8). IIP can currently cover 40,000 

 nm at 30 nm track spacing in any visibility 

 conditions. A detailed description of HP's 

 reconnaissance strategy is provided at 

 http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/iip/FAQ/faq25. 

 html. 



An IRD was deployed to HP's base 

 of operations in St. John's, Newfoundland 

 for 105 days during the 2002 ice season 

 (Table 1). IIP scheduled airborne 

 reconnaissance every other week. IIP flew 

 11 sorties, 28 of which were transit flights 

 to and from St. John's. 43 sorties were 

 iceberg reconnaissance patrols to 

 determine the southwestern, southern and 

 southeastern LAKI. No research sorties 

 were flown in 2002. Six sorties were 

 logistics flights from Coast Guard Air 

 Station Elizabeth City to maintain and 

 repair the aircraft. Figure 9 displays 

 associated IIP flight hours for 2002. 



Table 1. 2002 IRD summary. 



NOTE: Flight hours Include patrol and transit hours. 



IRD#1 includes 3.3 and IRD#4 includes 31.3 logistic hours. 



Figure 9. 2002 flight hours 



IIP used 476.8 flight hours in 2002, 

 a 32% increase from 2001 (Figure 10). 

 This increase was due to a light ice season 

 in 2001 compared to a moderate ice 

 season in 2002. Figure 1 1 compares flight 

 hours with the number of icebergs south of 

 48°N latitude since 1988. This figure 

 demonstrates that IIP expends a fairly 

 consistent number of flight hours but the 

 number of icebergs varies significantly. A 

 few icebergs can extend the geographic 

 distribution of the LAKI even with a low 

 number of icebergs passing south of 48°N. 

 IIP is often in the position of having to 

 patrol a large ocean area with widely 

 distributed icebergs. 



Differentiating among types of 

 targets on the Grand Banks is a continuous 

 challenge for IIP reconnaissance. Visibility 

 is frequently poor and targets are often 

 identified solely from their radar image. 

 Both SLAR and FLAR provide valuable 

 clues about the identity of targets. 

 However, in most cases, FLAR's superior 

 imaging capability provides definitive target 

 identification. Figure 12 displays the 

 numbers and types of targets detected by 

 reconnaissance patrols during the 2002 

 season. Of 696 icebergs detected, 85% 

 were detected with radar and 25% of those 

 were identified solely with radar, 

 demonstrating MP's reliance on radar 

 information. Determining whether a radar 

 target is an iceberg or a vessel is 

 particularly difficult with small vessels and 



11 



