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Description

Compared to its real-world counterpart, the United States Coast Guard, the Osean Federation Coast Guard is a far more militarily-inclined organization. While traditionally noncombat tasks such as search and rescue and nautical law enforcement still fall under the OFCG’s purview, they devote a much larger portion of their attention to the coastal defense mission than the USCG.
The reasons for this different balance are numerous. The most prominent are Osea’s long coastline and the close proximity between Osea and potentially unfriendly nations. The Osean capital of Oured, for example, is separated from the border of Sapin by a mere 200 kilometers of water. Where the United States has relatively friendly neighbors to its north and south, and large bodies of water to its east and west, the Osean Federation has no such luxuries.
As such, OFCG equipment is far more militarized than comparable USCG equipment. OFCG aircraft, such as their MH-60T Jayhawks and MH-65 Dolphins, practice the Airborne Use of Force (AUF) mission much more extensively, as their mission includes the interdiction of possible hostile small surface combatants (SSCs) near Osean shores.
The AUF mission became especially important in the wake of the Belkan War of 1995. Numerous Osean facilities fell prey to raids by Belkan Kampfschwimmer teams. The relatively light armament of OFCG aircraft were inadequate for the task of stopping Belkan infiltration vessels, which were as a rule armored to resist small arms fire, rendering them impervious to the light machine guns carried by OFCG helicopters.
Following the Belkan War, the Osean Coast Guard began to take the surface warfare mission far more seriously, sending an initial crop of Jayhawk and Dolphin pilots from its Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadrons (HITRON) in 1998 to train with the Osean Marine Corps’ Cobra squadrons and the Osean Navy’s Seahawk squadrons. These initial Coast Guard pilots trained in weapons and tactics, familiarizing themselves with heavier systems, including the AGM-114 Hellfire, which had begun to be integrated onto the SH-60B and HH-60H shortly before the outbreak of the Belkan War, and develop tactics to be able to more safely interdict hostile small craft.
At the same time, the Coast Guard began integrating more robust survivability equipment into its aircraft, having suffered losses to Belkan commandos with man-portable surface-to-air-missiles during the war. As the service’s most capable rotary-winged aircraft, the Jayhawk became the lead platform for the AUF mission. The HH-60Js received aircraft survivability equipment, including missile launch warning sensors, laser detectors, infrared jammers, removable armor packages, and chaff and flare dispensers. Additionally, to leverage the training being undertaken by the HITRON crews, the removable FLIR on the HH-60J was replaced by the combination FLIR/laser designator fitted to the HH-60H and SH-60B. In conjunction with the existing extended pylons, usually used on the HH-60J to carry extra fuel tanks for search and rescue missions, the new FLIR enabled the Jayhawk to successfully employ Hellfires. Integration of the new equipment was made easy by the shared lineage between the HH-60J and HH-60H, as both airframes were extremely similar. Despite the integration of infrared countermeasures, the Jayhawks were not fitted with the Hover Infrared Suppressor System found on the HH-60H, as the Coast Guard found that the exhaust suppressors had a detrimental effect on hover performance. Additionally, the HH-60Js were cleared for the use of heavier defensive armament, including M134 miniguns and M3P .50 caliber machine guns. The HH-65s, lacking the horsepower of their larger brethren, still received a number of the upgrades with the assistance of Aéronautique Rotative, the producer of the Dolphins, integrating the weapons pylons from the Panther, the militarized version of the Dolphin, and a lightweight laser designator/FLIR combo from the MH-6 Little Bird, in addition to a pair of bolt-on chaff and flare dispensers and rudimentary missile warning gear.
Despite being started in 1998, the upgrade process was put on hiatus for a number of years due to budget cuts caused by the drawdowns that came with the thawing of relations with Yuktobania and the election of President Vincent Harling, with only a quartet of Jayhawks receiving Hellfire capability before the project was put on hold. The “laserhawks,” as they were known among the Jayhawk community, were consolidated near Oured Bay, due to the number of sensitive government facilities along the coastline and the proximity to Belka.
While the aircraft remained unmodified, the training pipeline continued, and by 2002 the Coast Guard had AUF capable crews dispersed at all of its major helicopter bases.
After a number of delays, the rest of the aircraft in the Coast Guard fleet were finally upgraded, the last Dolphin being returned to service in 2010, just before the outbreak of the Circum-Pacific War. Due to the length of the upgrade process, a number of other improvements were incorporated with the AUF-specific changes, including glass cockpits and new engines for the Jayhawks and Dolphins. The upgraded aircraft were redesignated the MH-60T and MH-65C, respectively, the new designations accurately reflecting their multi-mission nature.

The aircraft depicted here, based at Coast Guard Air Station Eversole, near Oured, is shown configured for the Airborne Use of Force mission circa 2020.

The owners of the properties depicted herein and I maintain our respective rights.

Description

Compared to its real-world counterpart, the United States Coast Guard, the Osean Federation Coast Guard is a far more militarily-inclined organization. While traditionally noncombat tasks such as search and rescue and nautical law enforcement still fall under the OFCG’s purview, they devote a much larger portion of their attention to the coastal defense mission than the USCG.
The reasons for this different balance are numerous. The most prominent are Osea’s long coastline and the close proximity between Osea and potentially unfriendly nations. The Osean capital of Oured, for example, is separated from the border of Sapin by a mere 200 kilometers of water. Where the United States has relatively friendly neighbors to its north and south, and large bodies of water to its east and west, the Osean Federation has no such luxuries.
As such, OFCG equipment is far more militarized than comparable USCG equipment. OFCG aircraft, such as their MH-60T Jayhawks and MH-65 Dolphins, practice the Airborne Use of Force (AUF) mission much more extensively, as their mission includes the interdiction of possible hostile small surface combatants (SSCs) near Osean shores.
The AUF mission became especially important in the wake of the Belkan War of 1995. Numerous Osean facilities fell prey to raids by Belkan Kampfschwimmer teams. The relatively light armament of OFCG aircraft were inadequate for the task of stopping Belkan infiltration vessels, which were as a rule armored to resist small arms fire, rendering them impervious to the light machine guns carried by OFCG helicopters.
Following the Belkan War, the Osean Coast Guard began to take the surface warfare mission far more seriously, sending an initial crop of Jayhawk and Dolphin pilots from its Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadrons (HITRON) in 1998 to train with the Osean Marine Corps’ Cobra squadrons and the Osean Navy’s Seahawk squadrons. These initial Coast Guard pilots trained in weapons and tactics, familiarizing themselves with heavier systems, including the AGM-114 Hellfire, which had begun to be integrated onto the SH-60B and HH-60H shortly before the outbreak of the Belkan War, and develop tactics to be able to more safely interdict hostile small craft.
At the same time, the Coast Guard began integrating more robust survivability equipment into its aircraft, having suffered losses to Belkan commandos with man-portable surface-to-air-missiles during the war. As the service’s most capable rotary-winged aircraft, the Jayhawk became the lead platform for the AUF mission. The HH-60Js received aircraft survivability equipment, including missile launch warning sensors, laser detectors, infrared jammers, removable armor packages, and chaff and flare dispensers. Additionally, to leverage the training being undertaken by the HITRON crews, the removable FLIR on the HH-60J was replaced by the combination FLIR/laser designator fitted to the HH-60H and SH-60B. In conjunction with the existing extended pylons, usually used on the HH-60J to carry extra fuel tanks for search and rescue missions, the new FLIR enabled the Jayhawk to successfully employ Hellfires. Integration of the new equipment was made easy by the shared lineage between the HH-60J and HH-60H, as both airframes were extremely similar. Despite the integration of infrared countermeasures, the Jayhawks were not fitted with the Hover Infrared Suppressor System found on the HH-60H, as the Coast Guard found that the exhaust suppressors had a detrimental effect on hover performance. Additionally, the HH-60Js were cleared for the use of heavier defensive armament, including M134 miniguns and M3P .50 caliber machine guns. The HH-65s, lacking the horsepower of their larger brethren, still received a number of the upgrades with the assistance of Aéronautique Rotative, the producer of the Dolphins, integrating the weapons pylons from the Panther, the militarized version of the Dolphin, and a lightweight laser designator/FLIR combo from the MH-6 Little Bird, in addition to a pair of bolt-on chaff and flare dispensers and rudimentary missile warning gear.
Despite being started in 1998, the upgrade process was put on hiatus for a number of years due to budget cuts caused by the drawdowns that came with the thawing of relations with Yuktobania and the election of President Vincent Harling, with only a quartet of Jayhawks receiving Hellfire capability before the project was put on hold. The “laserhawks,” as they were known among the Jayhawk community, were consolidated near Oured Bay, due to the number of sensitive government facilities along the coastline and the proximity to Belka.
While the aircraft remained unmodified, the training pipeline continued, and by 2002 the Coast Guard had AUF capable crews dispersed at all of its major helicopter bases.
After a number of delays, the rest of the aircraft in the Coast Guard fleet were finally upgraded, the last Dolphin being returned to service in 2010, just before the outbreak of the Circum-Pacific War. Due to the length of the upgrade process, a number of other improvements were incorporated with the AUF-specific changes, including glass cockpits and new engines for the Jayhawks and Dolphins. The upgraded aircraft were redesignated the MH-60T and MH-65C, respectively, the new designations accurately reflecting their multi-mission nature.

The aircraft depicted here, based at Coast Guard Air Station Eversole, near Oured, is shown configured for the Airborne Use of Force mission circa 2020.

The owners of the properties depicted herein and I maintain our respective rights.