Navy completes KC-130J weapon test with newly Harvest Hawk configuration
NewsJune 25, 2018
NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. U.S. Navy officials announced the Tactical Airlift Program Office (PMA-207) Integrated Warfighting Capability (IWC) Weapons team completed a five-week developmental and integrated test (DT/IT) live fire event utilizing a newly configured KC-130J with the Harvest Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit (HAWK) Plus (HH+) installed. The results demonstrated the HH+ completed multiple sorties, demonstrating successful strikes on both fixed and moving targets.
The live fire test, conducted at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California also included four dedicated tactical integration flights to support operational test objective in conjunction with the weapons tactics instructor (WTI) course at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.
The HH+ mission is to provide the U.S. Marine Corps with extended endurance multisensor imagery, reconnaissance, and on-call close air support capabilities. The HH+ is an upgrade to the original Harvest HAWK roll-on, roll-off precision strike package weapons system.
“The successful employment of this capability during live fire closed out the developmental and integrated test and positioned us to move into the follow-on test and evaluation phase of the program. The KJ IWC team did an outstanding job with our industry partners to correct hardware and software deficiencies with such dramatic results. The HH+ weapons kit will provide a significant combat multiplier to the Marine Air Ground Task Force,” says Captain Steve Nassau, PMA-207 Program Manager.
Th next stop for the KJ IWC team is to develop an engineering change proposal (ECP) to improve the Hellfire weapons capacity and allow for future capability expansion. This ECP will ensure the KJ platform is a sensor is shooter, electronic warfare and is digitally interoperable capable, and in line with the Deputy Commandant for Aviation’s goal.
