NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric istration) has announced the order for two C-130J Hercules from Lockheed Martin, who will have the mission of acting as “hurricane hunters”, functioning as aerial laboratories with instruments dedicated to the analysis of climate data.
Aircraft customization will include multi-mode radar, radar Doppler vertical scanning, automatic probe launching systems and high-speed internet, as well as a series of specialized sensors for collecting climate data.
NOAA indicates that using aircraft to track hurricanes, sometimes flying close to their cores, improves hurricane track predictions by 15 to 20 percent and intensity by 10 to 15 percent.
Scheduled to begin operations in 2030, the two new aircraft will replace NOAA's current fleet of WP-3D Orions, which have been in service since the 1970s. Like the previous aircraft, the C-130Js will be based in Lakeland, Florida.
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