The Washington administration has criticized the US Coast Guard's plan which aims to standardize the helicopter fleet in service into a single model and modernize it. This is a procedure that would have a total cost of 57.9 billion dollars. A move that the auditors of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) attacked in recent days. 

This is the United States Coast Guard's plan in detail: to eliminate from its fleet the MH-65D/E "Dolphin" aircraft (98 in service) made by Airbus Helicopters to carry out short-term Search and Rescue (SAR) services. The objective is to move to a fleet composed entirely of medium-range SAR rotarcraft, adding helicopters to this category currently made up of 48 Sikorsky MH-60T "Jayhawks". 

The US Coast Guard would like to create a uniform fleet of a minimum of 127 modern aircraft of the MH-60T type. The reason? Abandoning the MH-65 would resolve some difficulties in obtaining components and spare parts due to the cessation of production of the civilian version (H-155) in 2018. This has already led to a decrease in flight hours and the availability of aircraft. 

However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that the United States Coast Guard currently has 146 mixed MH-65 and MH-60T helicopters at its disposal. The transition to 127 Sikorsky MH-60T "Jayhawks" aircraft would therefore lead to a -13% reduction in the number of rotorcraft in the fleet. "The Coast Guard has not assessed whether the MH-60T helicopter best meets its mission needs as part of its fleet consolidation plans", said GAO.