Coast Guard adds machine guns to helicopters
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
February 3, 2009
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| First Class Petty Officer Mike Conrad, a precision marksman from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile, Ala, takes aim aboard an MH65 helicopter from Air Station San Francisco during training in San Pablo Bay Monday. Blank rounds were used during ports, waterways and coastal security training, which simulated the takeover by the Coast Guard of a hostile vessel. (Coast Guard Photo/PA1 Alan Haraf) (Courtesy Photo ) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The four Coast Guard helicopters that patrol San Francisco’s shoreline have been replaced with stealthier and better-armored choppers that, for the first time, can be armed with machine guns.
The Coast Guard is replacing its national fleet of orange-and-white helicopters under one of the post-9/11 programs started by the Bush administration to better militarize the agency.
The four new MH-65C Dolphin helicopters, which are stationed near San Francisco International Airport, are upgraded versions of the aircraft they replaced.
The new helicopters will not be armed all the time, but they will provide armed escorts to arriving and departing cruise ships, according to Adm. Paul Zukunft.
They will be available in the event of a terrorist threat, such as the one that killed 17 sailors aboard a Navy destroyer in 2000 in a Yemeni port, according to Zukunft. He commands the 11th Coast Guard District, which spans four states and thousands of miles of ocean.
“A concern of ours would be an attack much like the USS Cole — not just against a military vessel, but also a passenger vessel,” Zukunft said.
To help pay for new equipment, weapons and agents, the annual budget for the agency increased from $3.9 billion before 9/11 to more than $9 billion sought in 2009, according to figures published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The helicopters are used because it’s safer to fire bullets down into the water from a helicopter near a city than horizontally from a boat, in part because bullets can bounce like skipped stones on water, according to Zukunft.
Bullets fired from the M240 machine guns used by the Coast Guard have ranges of 2.5 miles, Zukunft said.
Accurately shooting at adversarial watercraft is a challenge from a helicopter, according to San Francisco-based Cmdr. Sam Creech, who for 19 years has piloted Coast Guard helicopters.
“Our marksmen are pretty highly trained,” Creech said. “Not only are the boats moving, but the helicopter is moving.”
The Coast Guard this week is using a helicopter-mounted machine gun loaded with blanks in “judgmental training” sessions in San Pablo Bay, according to Creech.
The training was on full display Monday morning when a three-person helicopter crew hovered over a faux-rogue Coast Guard dinghy filled with pretend terrorists wielding fake weapons.
The boat and its four-person, paramilitary-garbed crew were part of the Coast Guard’s Maritime Safety and Security Team — which is similar to a SWAT team, according to Creech.
The helicopter swung clockwise around the boat, with its machine gun hanging out of the right-hand side and kept pointed at the boat.
Eventually, the hazy sky filled with the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire for the training exercise.
Heavy machinery
The firearms the new Coast Guard helicopters can carry are anything but lightweight.
- Belt-fed, air-cooled, gas-operated, fully automatic machine guns
- 4-feet long and 27.6 pounds
- Fire 7.62 mm bullets up to 2.5 miles
- Can fire 200 rounds per minute in 10- to 13-second bursts with 2 to 3 seconds between bursts
- A heat shield protects the gunner’s hand from the hot barrel
Source: Product specifications published by GlobalSecurity.org
