NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter fleet is aging. Senators want to make it bigger and newer

By Andrew Freedman, CNN

(CNN) — A bipartisan group of senators are trying to triple the size of the Hurricane Hunter fleet – the three hulking and aging aircraft used to fly directly into hurricanes and tropical storm systems to measure their intensity.

A bipartisan Senate bill to be introduced on Wednesday would give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration $2.5 billion for buying new aircraft, as well as an additional $45 million per year to hire more highly specialized pilots to fly them.

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The bill, shared first with CNN, would codify NOAA’s aircraft reconnaissance and research role into law, which could help prevent those responsibilities from being transferred to another agency, like the US Air Force. A small agency, NOAA can be more vulnerable in Washington’s bureaucratic tussles.

More frequent and intense weather extremes are forcing agencies like NOAA to increase their tempo of operations using outdated equipment. If the Hurricane Hunter research fleet is not significantly bolstered soon, lawmakers and scientists fear that forecast accuracy will suffer.

Currently, NOAA flies two aging WP-3D Orion turboprop hurricane research planes, nicknamed “Kermit” and “Miss Piggy,” that will reach the end of their service life in 2030, as well as one heavily modified Gulfstream jet named “Gonzo.”

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the bill is being introduced by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, along with four other senators of both parties representing coastal states. The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over NOAA.

The legislation would also direct NOAA to continue to acquire and use cutting-edge scientific equipment, including tail-mounted Doppler radars to improve hurricane forecasts and atmospheric river projections.

NOAA’s planes are used to keep tabs on tropical storms and hurricanes by flying in, above and around them, while deploying a host of specialized instruments and research tools to get a 3D view of these fierce storms.

In recent years, NOAA’s fleet has also been used to produce more reliable forecasts of atmospheric river events that can dump biblical amounts of rains and heavy snow to the West Coast and other parts of the country.

The data gathered from these flights is fed into computer models used for predicting the eventual path and intensity of such storms. This information has been shown to dramatically improve forecast accuracy, especially as more Atlantic hurricanes are undergoing periods of rapid intensification.

But the age of the planes, and the turbulent wear and tear they undergo, has created issues. In recent hurricane seasons, scheduled reconnaissance missions have been scrapped at the last minute due to mechanical problems.

The Air Force also conducts hurricane reconnaissance missions, but their larger fleet of C-130J aircraft lacks much of the finely-tuned research equipment that NOAA’s are equipped with.

The fleet buildup is designed to prevent such single points of failure, and the new bill contains language that would require NOAA to have backup aircraft on hand for each mission.

NOAA is currently awaiting the delivery of a modern replacement for its Gulfstream aircraft, and for at least one new aircraft to begin to replace the WP-3Ds.

NOAA has authorization to operate up to six Hurricane Hunter planes, double the agency’s current fleet, but Congress has not budgeted for such an increase, so they haven’t yet materialized. The new bill, if enacted, would direct the agency to at least six planes and a maximum of nine — and help pave the way for the funding.

Cantwell represents a state that has seen devastating flooding from atmospheric rivers in recent years.

“As atmospheric rivers become more frequent and severe across the Pacific Northwest, our communities increasingly depend on accurate forecasts to prepare for flooding and other extreme weather,” Cantwell said in a statement. “NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft collect critical data that improves those forecasts, but much of the fleet is more than 50 years old.”

The bill, if enacted, would also forestall any potential efforts to transition the Hurricane Hunters to a drone aircraft research fleet, specifically requiring that the new planes be “manned.” Concerns over such potential proposals center around whether drones would gather as much accurate, forecast-relevant information as crewed aircraft currently do.

The bill “will ensure NOAA has the modern fleet and capabilities needed to continue delivering the reliable, accurate forecasts Americans depend on,” Cruz said in a statement. Cruz’s home state of Texas has been battered by some severe hurricanes in recent years.

NOAA has endured turbulence under the Trump administration. Last year, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made deep cuts to the National Weather Service, before partially reversing them. Some Hurricane Hunter staff were affected by the layoffs.

The White House’s latest budget request would eliminate the agency’s entire research arm, including its network of labs, which could significantly hinder efforts to continue to improve hurricane forecasts.

Many of the scientists who fly missions aboard the Hurricane Hunter aircraft are with the agency’s research division. So far, Congress has been pushing back against such a wholescale cut to NOAA research.

“As extreme weather events increase in frequency, we must ensure we have the resources in place to protect our communities,” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, said in a statement.

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