Upgrading US Coast Guard legacy cutters with HF systems JITC certified to MIL-STD-188-141B ALE

Background:

The U.S. Coast Guard is considered the 12th largest "navy" in the world, yet some of the ships date back to World War II. The average age of a Coast Guard Cutter is 25 to 30 years old. The Coast Guard needed to upgrade its 270-foot Medium Endurance Cutter (WMEC) fleet to meet new waveform standards including MIL-STD-188-141B Automatic Link Establishment (ALE). In summer 2005, Thales was awarded a $32 Million dollar, 10-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract to upgrade all existing Coast Guard Cutters in the legacy fleet. This contract completes the installations aboard the 270-foot Medium Endurance Cutters and paves the way for future communications upgrades aboard 378-foot High Endurance Cutters (WHEC), 210-foot WMEC, Polar Icebreakers, and several other classes of ships.

Solution:

To upgrade the WMEC fleet, Thales delivered its Series 5000 HF system.This upgrade provides the Coast Guard maximum flexibility with the latest integrated and networked shipborne HF technology supporting the newest generation waveforms, including MIL-STD-188-141B Automatic Link Establishment (ALE). Thales’ modularly designed, dual channel HF radios provide size and weight reductions over legacy equipment and, with a variety of control applications, allow the Coast Guard the ability to remotely control the Thales HF system from multiple locations, maximizing operational flexibility and reducing workload. The Series 5000 HF system includes transceivers, power amplifiers, couplers, ALE modems, and associated spares. Thales is the only HF provider to offer a Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) solution for the Coast Guard - a fundamental requirement.

"From my first look at the products that Thales Communications, Inc. provides I knew the Coast Guard would benefit from this product line," said Mark Roebuck, Maintenance and Logistics Command-Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard. "I was very impressed with the system flexibility and modular design that will enable our support personnel to quickly and efficiently repair failures in the field, and our system designers to tailor systems to meet mission requirements throughout our fleet of legacy cutters. Thales Communications, Inc. managers and engineers have set themselves apart from others by providing superior customer support and have employed a customer oriented business model that other companies should follow."