Very exciting news as NOAA announces a new contract for modernizing their Hurricane Hunter fleet. Two new specialized aircraft (with the potential for additional) will replace aging 1970s Orions in 2030. An exciting, justified, and overdue improvement to hurricane data gathering and forecasting.
Excerpts below:
Today, NOAA announced that it has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, based in Georgia, for two specialized C-130J Hercules aircraft to become the next generation of NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft.
Funded in part by the 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, the fully-instrumented aircraft are expected to join NOAA's fleet in 2030. They will replace the long-serving WP-3D Orions, which have operated since the mid-1970s.
The contract covers acquisition of two C-130J Hercules aircraft and the NOAA-specific design efforts, with options for additional aircraft.
When aircraft data are available, hurricane track and intensity forecasts are improved by more than 15-20% in track accuracy and 10-15% in intensity forecasts.
The new C-130Js are cargo-type aircraft, which will allow NOAA to accommodate larger science payloads. They will be equipped with a variety of updated instrumentation developed from experience with NOAA’s current WP-3D Orion aircraft and from across the U.S. government.
Both new aircraft will be customized with the same Multi-Mode Radar as the P-3s, as well as new automated dropsonde launchers, high speed internet connectivity, vertically scanning doppler radar and instrument ports for a variety of research instruments for surface winds, waves and oceanographic sensing. The C-130Js will also be able to launch and control uncrewed aircraft systems that expand the reach of the aircraft into new and under-measured areas of the storm environment.
The aircraft will also carry expanded mission capabilities that include long endurance coastal mapping, gravity measurements and transport capabilities to support worldwide deployments.
The C-130Js will be based at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, Florida, along with NOAA’s other specialized environmental data-gathering aircraft.
Funded in part by the 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, the fully-instrumented aircraft are expected to join NOAA's fleet in 2030. They will replace the long-serving WP-3D Orions, which have operated since the mid-1970s.
The contract covers acquisition of two C-130J Hercules aircraft and the NOAA-specific design efforts, with options for additional aircraft.
When aircraft data are available, hurricane track and intensity forecasts are improved by more than 15-20% in track accuracy and 10-15% in intensity forecasts.
The new C-130Js are cargo-type aircraft, which will allow NOAA to accommodate larger science payloads. They will be equipped with a variety of updated instrumentation developed from experience with NOAA’s current WP-3D Orion aircraft and from across the U.S. government.
Both new aircraft will be customized with the same Multi-Mode Radar as the P-3s, as well as new automated dropsonde launchers, high speed internet connectivity, vertically scanning doppler radar and instrument ports for a variety of research instruments for surface winds, waves and oceanographic sensing. The C-130Js will also be able to launch and control uncrewed aircraft systems that expand the reach of the aircraft into new and under-measured areas of the storm environment.
The aircraft will also carry expanded mission capabilities that include long endurance coastal mapping, gravity measurements and transport capabilities to support worldwide deployments.
The C-130Js will be based at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, Florida, along with NOAA’s other specialized environmental data-gathering aircraft.
