The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prepared a report “at the request of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure” on the use and availability of Coast Guard aircraft. Below the break is CBO’s “At a Glance” summary. I added some additional detail and observations below.

“CBO found that Coast Guard helicopters tend to have availability rates that are lower than the rates for Army helicopters, higher than the rates for Department of the Navy (DoN) helicopters, and similar to those of Air Force helicopters.

“On average, Coast Guard helicopters flew significantly more hours than DoD’s helicopters. (About twice as much–Chuck) (CBO also compared Coast Guard H-60s with DoD’s H-60s and found a similar result.)”

There is also a Graphic showing the total flight hours during 2024 for each air station that I included above.

At a Glance

In this report, the Congressional Budget Office analyzes patterns in the availability and use of aircraft by the U.S. Coast Guard, the agency responsible for protecting the nation’s waterways, from 2006 to 2024. CBO looks at availability—a measure of the percentage of time aircraft can be flown for training or missions—and flying hours, both in total and per aircraft.

Here are CBO’s findings about the fleet’s size, availability, and use:

• Size. As of 2024, the Coast Guard had about 200 manned aircraft. About three-fourths of those are rotary-wing aircraft (H-65 and H-60 helicopters), and the rest are fixed-wing aircraft. Since the early 2010s, the number of Coast Guard aircraft has declined.
• Availability. From 2006 to 2024, the availability of Coast Guard aircraft decreased slightly. Availability of fixed-wing aircraft has been generally lower than that of helicopters, although their respective availability rates have converged in recent years. In 2024, the Coast Guard’s average availability rate for its aircraft was 49 percent.
• Use. Total flying hours for Coast Guard aircraft have decreased since 2006. Use of the H-65 fleet has declined the most, especially since 2019. The fixed-wing C-144 fleet has logged the most flying hours per aircraft.
• Comparison With Availability and Use of Other Aircraft. In general, Coast Guard aircraft fly much more than similar Department of Defense (DoD) aircraft, but their availability rates are about the same as those of DoD’s aircraft.
• Comparison With Availability and Use When Operated by the Navy. CBO analyzed 10 Coast Guard H-60s that were formerly operated by the Department of the Navy. During service in the Navy, those H-60s flew fewer hours, on average, than other H-60s operated by the Navy. After those H-60s were refurbished in a depot to perform different missions, the Coast Guard began to operate them. Availability rates and flying hours per year for those helicopters were markedly greater than when they were operated by the Navy.
• Availability and Use During the Pandemic. Even though the availability rate of Coast Guard aircraft did not change markedly during the coronavirus pandemic, their flying hours dropped in March 2020 and reached their lowest point in April 2020.