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The Air Force is retiring the HH-60G Pave Hawk because it is replacing an aging combat-rescue fleet with the newer HH-60W Jolly Green II. The change is a planned modernization of the aircraft used for combat search and rescue and personnel recovery—not a response to one publicly identified accident, maintenance failure, or budget cut.
The HH-60W keeps the Pave Hawk’s central rescue role while adding newer avionics, communications, navigation, defensive systems, survivability features, greater fuel capacity and a GAU-21 weapon capability. Retirement is occurring unit by unit, so there is no single date that accurately describes when every HH-60G left service.
What the HH-60G Pave Hawk does
The HH-60G is the Air Force’s combat-search-and-rescue and personnel-recovery version of the Army UH-60 Black Hawk. Its crews recover downed aircrew and other isolated personnel from hostile or dangerous areas, often while operating at night or in poor weather. The aircraft’s design supports the rescue force that locates, reaches, protects and evacuates people who cannot get out on their own.
Air Force descriptions also assign the helicopter a broader set of duties. Depending on the situation, an HH-60G unit can support civil search and rescue, disaster response, medical evacuation, humanitarian assistance and spaceflight-support operations. Those missions do not make the aircraft a general-purpose replacement for every helicopter in the inventory; they show how the platform’s rescue equipment and crews can be used outside a combat recovery.
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The HH-60G’s retirement therefore does not mean that the Air Force is abandoning personnel recovery. It is changing the aircraft used to perform that mission.
Why the Air Force says replacement is necessary
An aging platform needs a modern replacement
Air Force retirement announcements describe the HH-60G as aging and present the HH-60W as the modern aircraft needed for current and future combat-rescue demands. The official explanation focuses on capability and fleet modernization. The published accounts do not identify one event that forced the retirement, nor do they provide a quantified fleet-age average, readiness percentage, maintenance-cost total or projected savings figure.
That distinction matters. Calling the HH-60G aging explains why the service is moving to a new design and support baseline; it does not establish that every HH-60G was unsafe or incapable of carrying out a rescue. A legacy aircraft can remain useful while its operator introduces a successor with more capacity and more current systems.
The Jolly Green II adds systems for today’s operating environment
The Air Force Materiel Command’s October 2022 announcement and Air Education and Training Command’s December 2024 Kirtland account identify several improvements in the HH-60W:
- Improved avionics for operating and managing the aircraft.
- Improved communications and navigation equipment.
- Enhanced defensive systems and survivability features.
- Increased fuel capacity.
- A GAU-21 weapon capability reported as an added feature in the HH-60W announcement.
These are selected capability changes cited by the Air Force, not a complete public specification-by-specification comparison. They indicate why the service considers the HH-60W better suited to contested airspace, longer or more demanding missions and modern command-and-control requirements.
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What is replacing the Pave Hawk?
The successor is the HH-60W Jolly Green II. It is designed for the same core combat-search-and-rescue and personnel-recovery mission, while incorporating newer equipment and additional capacity. The name continues the Air Force’s long association between “Jolly Green” helicopters and rescue operations.
The HH-60W reached initial combat capability in October 2022, according to Air Force Materiel Command. Initial combat capability means the program had reached a defined operational threshold; it does not mean that every rescue wing had converted or that all HH-60Gs immediately left service. Training, aircraft delivery, crew qualification, logistics and unit-level readiness continue during a transition of this size.
Lt. Col. Ellen Cronin, a materiel leader in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Helicopter Program Office, described the successor this way: “It’s an incredible aircraft, with enhanced capabilities that will significantly improve the Air Force’s combat search and rescue mission.”
HH-60G versus HH-60W: the practical differences
The public Air Force accounts support a capability-level comparison rather than a full technical specification sheet. The following table limits each entry to what those accounts establish.
| Comparison area | HH-60G Pave Hawk | HH-60W Jolly Green II |
|---|---|---|
| Primary role | Combat search and rescue and personnel recovery, with additional rescue and emergency-response missions | Combat search and rescue and personnel recovery, including day, night and marginal-weather operations |
| Avionics | Legacy aircraft; detailed configuration is not stated in the cited retirement accounts | Improved avionics identified by Air Education and Training Command |
| Communications and navigation | Legacy configuration; a detailed side-by-side specification is not stated | Improved communications and navigation reported by Air Force Materiel Command |
| Survivability and defensive equipment | Existing Pave Hawk defensive and survivability fit; the cited accounts do not provide a complete inventory | Enhanced survivability features and improved defensive systems |
| Fuel capacity | Baseline capacity is not stated in the cited retirement accounts | Increased fuel capacity |
| Weapon capability | The retirement accounts do not provide a complete weapon comparison | Air Force Materiel Command reported an added GAU-21 capability |
| Program status | Being retired as units convert | Initial combat capability reported in October 2022; replacing the HH-60G through the ongoing transition |
“Better” in this context means better aligned with current operational requirements. It does not mean the HH-60G could no longer perform a rescue or that every aircraft had the same condition. Individual aircraft, crews and locations can differ, while the service still decides that a common newer fleet is the better long-term choice.
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When is the Pave Hawk being retired?
There is no single fleetwide retirement day in the official accounts. Units are converting at different times as they receive HH-60Ws and complete training.
| Date | What happened | Source context |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Kirtland’s 58th Special Operations Wing received its first HH-60W | Air Education and Training Command account published in 2024 |
| October 2022 | The HH-60W achieved initial combat capability | Air Force Materiel Command announcement dated October 19, 2022 |
| December 2024 | Kirtland retired its final HH-60G Pave Hawk | Air Education and Training Command account dated December 3, 2024 |
| September 2025 | The 920th Rescue Wing reported that its final two HH-60Gs departed Patrick Space Force Base for Davis-Monthan | Air Force Reserve Command account dated September 8, 2025 |
Kirtland’s conversion
Kirtland’s 58th Special Operations Wing began receiving HH-60Ws in 2020 and retired its last HH-60G in December 2024. The wing described the Jolly Green II’s improved avionics, enhanced survivability and increased fuel capacity as central benefits of the change. The wing continues training future combat-search-and-rescue aviators with the newer helicopter.
Col. Jason Allen, the wing commander, said: “Today we retire our last HH-60G Pave Hawk aircraft, but not it’s legacy or mission. 58 SOW Airmen will continue training future aviators in the CSAR mission with the newer HH-60W Jolly Green II, employing cutting edge technology and new tactics to rescue those in need from the most dangerous and unforgiving of environments.” The wording and punctuation in that quotation follow the Air Force account as published.
The 920th Rescue Wing’s final departures
In September 2025, the Air Force Reserve Command reported that the 920th Rescue Wing’s final two HH-60Gs departed Patrick Space Force Base for Davis-Monthan. This is a dated example of a reserve unit completing its local transition milestone; it is not proof that every HH-60G in the Air Force had already been retired.
Why published completion dates appear to conflict
Two official planning statements use different horizons. A 2024 Air Force account described a fleet-replacement plan reaching 2029. The Department of the Air Force’s FY2027 Air Force Aircraft Procurement, Volume I, says the HH-60W program will replace the HH-60G in FY2026. Those statements should not be turned into one definitive fleetwide completion date.
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They can refer to different scopes, planning vintages or milestones: a budget document may describe the fiscal year associated with a replacement program, while a unit article may describe the expected period for completing aircraft replacement across the fleet. The dated unit retirements demonstrate that conversion is staggered. Without a newer authoritative announcement defining the final aircraft and date, the most accurate answer is that retirement is underway and completion timing depends on the unit and the planning document being used.
What the transition means for rescue operations
The mission continues during conversion
Rescue wings do not simply stop operating while aircraft are exchanged. They train crews, qualify maintainers, establish new tactics, receive aircraft and manage deployments while older helicopters leave service. The HH-60W’s initial combat capability in 2022 and later unit retirements show a phased process rather than an overnight switch.
New equipment supports contested missions
Improved navigation and communications help crews coordinate with the larger rescue force and operate in difficult conditions. Defensive-system and survivability improvements address the risk that a rescue helicopter may have to enter a hostile or heavily defended area. More fuel capacity can provide additional planning flexibility, although the cited announcements do not quantify a specific range increase or endurance figure.
Weapons are only one part of the upgrade
The GAU-21 capability is one of the systems changes identified by Air Force Materiel Command, but the replacement decision is broader than armament. Avionics, communications, navigation, survivability and fuel capacity all affect how a rescue package plans and executes a mission. The public material does not support reducing the rationale to any single feature.
What is not established about the retirement decision
The available official explanations do not establish that a particular crash, maintenance failure, accident investigation, readiness statistic or cost-saving target caused the retirement. They also do not provide a verified average age for the fleet or a quantified percentage improvement in mission success, availability or operating cost.
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That absence is important when evaluating claims about the Pave Hawk online. A precise percentage, dollar saving or “last flight” date requires a dated source that actually reports it. The Air Force’s stated case is sufficient to explain the decision as modernization and replacement without adding unsupported numbers.
How many HH-60Ws are planned?
The FY2027 Air Force aircraft procurement justification describes a maximum procurement quantity of 113 aircraft. That is a program quantity, not a verified count of HH-60Ws delivered to units or currently operational. Procurement authorization, production, acceptance, modification and fielding are separate milestones, so the number should not be used as a delivered-fleet total.
The same budget material identifies day, night and marginal-weather combat search and rescue as the HH-60W’s primary mission and uses FY2026 replacement language for the HH-60G. Read together with the unit announcements, it shows the intended direction of the program while leaving the exact fleetwide end date dependent on later official reporting.
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Why the Pave Hawk’s legacy still matters
Retirement ends the aircraft’s service with a unit, not the importance of the capability it represented. The HH-60G carried the Air Force’s combat-rescue mission through years of operations and provided a common platform for crews trained to recover isolated personnel. Kirtland’s commander explicitly framed the transition as preserving the aircraft’s legacy and mission while moving pilots and rescue specialists to the HH-60W.
For readers asking why a familiar helicopter is disappearing, the answer is therefore two-part: the HH-60G is an aging platform, and the Air Force has a successor designed to deliver the same rescue mission with newer systems and more capacity. The retirement is a managed modernization program carried out across individual wings, not a declaration that personnel recovery is no longer required.
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