The Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) is an armed

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

squadron specializing in Airborne Use of Force (AUF) and drug-interdiction missions. It is based at

Cecil Field Cecil Airport is a public airport and commercial spaceport located in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is owned by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority and services military aircraft, corporate aircraft, general aviation, and air cargo. ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

. HITRON flew armed Agusta MH-68A Stingray helicopters from December 2000 until February 2008. At that time, HITRON took on the mantle of the Atlantic Area Deployment Center, and began flying the

MH-65C Dolphin The Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin is a twin-engined helicopter operated by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for medevac-capable search and rescue (SAR) and armed Airborne Use of Force missions. It is a variant of the French-built Eurocopter A ...

.New Era of USCG Airborne Use of Force Capability Begins
/ref> The unit was formally commissioned in 1998 and as of March 2017 it had interdicted over 500 vessels resulting in seizures totalling over US$16.7 billion.

Operations and tactics

When conducting counter drug operations, HITRON aircrews will deploy aboard Coast Guard cutters for thirty- to sixty-day deployments. While on deployment,

go-fast boat A go-fast boat is a small, fast power boat designed with a long narrow platform and a planing hull. During the United States alcohol prohibition era, these boats were used in "rum-running", transferring illegal liquor from larger vessels wai ...

s are searched for not only by the HITRON helicopter but also by shore based maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) such as the Coast Guard HC-130J Hercules. If an MPA locates a go-fast, the HITRON crew will launch from the cutter to intercept it. The crew will approach the suspect vessel with weapons trained on the vessel for self-protection. The helicopter crew will confirm the nationality or lack of nation status and whether the vessel is in fact a suspect

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are variou ...

vessel. The aircrew will then attempt to convince the boat crew to stop through the use of sirens, loud speakers, visual hand signals, and radio communications in both

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and Spanish. If the vessel stops during this phase, it will be boarded and searched by a boarding team from the cutter which accompanies the chase in an over-the-horizon pursuit boat and is vectored to the scene by the HITRON crew. If the vessel is found to be carrying

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalati ...

, the boarding team will take appropriate

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

action. If the suspect vessel fails to stop after numerous visual and verbal warnings, the helicopter crew will take up a firing position alongside the go-fast and the

aerial gunner ''Aerial Gunner'' is a 1943 American black-and-white World War II propaganda film produced by William C. Thomas and William H. Pine, who also directed. The film stars Chester Morris, Richard Arlen, and Jimmy Lydon. This was the first feature fi ...

will fire

warning shot In military and police contexts, a warning shot is an intentionally harmless artillery shot or gunshot with intent to enact direct compliance and order to a hostile perpetrator or enemy forces. It is recognized as signalling intended confronta ...

s across their bow with the mounted

M240 machine gun The M240 – officially the Machine Gun, 7.62 mm, M240 – is the U.S. military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns that chamber the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by t ...

to further compel them to stop. If the warning shots do not convince the suspects to stop, the gunner will attempt to disable the vessel by shooting out its engines with a

.50 caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a ...

precision rifle. Go-fasts usually have multiple outboard engines and the gunner will continue to fire into these engines until the suspects stop or they are forced to stop. Once the vessel is stopped, it will be boarded by the over-the-Horizon boat's boarding team.U.S. Coast Guard Aviation History
/ref>

History

In 1998, the Coast Guard estimated that it was stopping less than ten percent of the illegal drugs entering the United States by sea. Spurred by these estimates, Admiral James Loy, the then

Commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

, directed the Coast Guard to develop a plan to counter the

s used for smuggling drugs. This gave rise to the Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron. Starting in late 1998,

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

Mark 'Roscoe' Torres molded a group of ten volunteers into a cohesive and effective team, and in just seven months took ideas to reality as the squadron pioneered novel operating tactics and procedures. Flying leased MD900 and MD902 Enforcer helicopters the unit developed and evaluated tactics and procedures for day and night operations. Commander Roscoe worked closely with then LtCol Mark Mahaffey, Gunnery Sergeant Webb and Sgt Burkhardt from

HMLA-269 Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269 (HMLA-269) was a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters. Also known as "The Gunrunners", the squadron was based a ...

, a

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

helicopter squadron. The Marines worked with the Coast Guard aircrews with weapons employment and aerial tactics, which was instrumental in the Coast Guard Aircrews receiving Naval Aerial Gunner Qualifications. The training culminated in a live shoot in which the gunnery and flight operations worked flawlessly and allowed Coast Guard aircrews to actively engage Go-Fast drug boats with aerial weapons. During this early proof of concept phase, HITRON intercepted and stopped all five go-fasts they encountered, stopping of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

, and of marijuana with an estimated street value of over US$100 million, with all 17 suspects arrested. Due to their outstanding success during the test and evaluation stage, the HITRON program was validated and designated a permanent Coast Guard unit. The use of armed helicopters was originally classified but after proof of concept the existence of the unit was revealed in September 1999. In 2014 the helicopters also operated from , a patrol vessel of the Royal Dutch Navy and stationed in the

Dutch Antilles Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Equipment

Aircraft

The unit originally flew leased MD 900 and MD 902 helicopters with the unofficial military designation of MH90 Enforcer. When the decision was made to make the squadron permanent and expand it to eight aircraft, Federal contracting laws required a competitive bid to choose a permanent aircraft for the mission. In March 2000, Agusta was awarded the contract to provide eight A109E Power helicopters to replace the MH90 Enforcers that HITRON had been successfully flying. The Agusta A109E Power was given the military designation MH-68A Stingray. In 2008 the Coast Guard allowed the lease for the MH-68As to expire and replaced them with the first of the new MH-65C Dolphins. The MH-65C is an upgraded version of the HH-65B which includes, among other upgrades, new avionics and communications equipment and the ability to carry armament. While not as nimble as the MH-68A, the MH-65C is faster, has greater range and endurance, and provides a smoother ride, therefore allowing more accurate shooting. It also has the logistical advantage of being standardized throughout the Coast Guard.

Weapons

The squadron was originally armed with

M16A2 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

rifles and mounted M240G machine guns for warning shots and self-protection. The bolt-action

Robar RC-50 The Robar RC-50 is a bolt-action anti-materiel precision rifle chambered in .50 BMG (12.7 × 99 mm NATO) manufactured by Robar Companies, Inc. in Phoenix, Arizona. The RC-50 is found in two variants—the original RC-50 (RC-50 Standard) and ...

.50-caliber rifle was used for disabling fire. The RC-50 has been replaced by a variant of the semiautomatic Barrett M107 .50-caliber rifle with an anti-corrosion finish. It is fitted with an

EOTech EOTECH is an American company that designs, manufactures, and markets electro-optic and night vision products and systems. The company is headquartered in Plymouth, Michigan. They produce holographic weapon sights for small arms that have bee ...

holographic weapon sight and an

Insight Technology Insight Technology, Inc. is an optical device manufacturer based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, USA. Insight Technology builds firearm accessories such as tactical flashlights and laser aiming modules, for military and civilian markets. The com ...

laser sight. The M14 Tactical, a version of the standard M14 with a Sage Enhanced Battle Rifle stock and improved muzzle brake, is also used by the squadron.

References

External links

USCG HITRON Jacksonville

HITRON: One of a Kind
- ''Naval Aviation News'' (May–June 2003)
2003 – Airborne Use of Force – Coast Guard Arms HH-65C and HH-60J Helicopters
{{authority control Units and organizations of the United States Coast Guard United States Coast Guard Aviation Transportation in Jacksonville, Florida 1998 establishments in Florida Police aviation units of the United States