Tail number 27045 has made its last operational flight as an Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk. The California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing retired the helicopter with a final flight and a divestment ceremony on Sept. 10, 2026, at Moffett Air National Guard Base, near Mountain View, California. A service spokesperson identified it as the last operational HH-60G in the entire Air Force.
The type entered service in 1982 and spent more than four decades as the service’s primary combat search and rescue helicopter. Its successor, the HH-60W Jolly Green II, had already taken over at every unit that gave up the G-model before California.
Air & Space Forces Magazine reported the retirement on Sept. 24, 2026, in a story by Greg Hadley that quoted the spokesperson: “Tail number 27045 is the last operational HH-60G in the entire Air Force.” The magazine noted that a few remaining G-models were still on the books and would be processed out by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Retirement of the last flying example still closes the type’s operational career in the Air Force.
Tail 27045 and the 129th Rescue Wing
The last flight belonged to a unit with a long rescue record. An Air Force account of the ceremony, republished by HeliHub on Sept. 23, 2026, says that since 1977 “the 129th is credited with saving 1,190 lives, many of them with the Pave Hawk playing a critical role in the rescue.” The same account says the Pave Hawk carried 129th crews during deployments in Afghanistan, “contributing to more than 300 combat saves,” and supported the wing’s operations following hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Harvey.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Buchta, an HH-60 pilot and commander of the 129th Rescue Squadron, described what the aircraft meant to the crews who flew it. Air & Space Forces Magazine quoted him:
“When you’re flying the [Pave Hawk], you kind of become one with that machine. The Golf feels like home when I sit in it.”
The magazine uses the same shorthand throughout: “Golf” for the G-model and “Whiskey” for the HH-60W that replaces it.
What the HH-60G could carry
The design drew on the Black Hawk. “The G model is an amazing aircraft, built based on black hawk models and with lessons learned from survivability in Vietnam,” Lt. Col. Louis Nolting, commander of the 33rd Rescue Squadron, said in a Kadena Air Base report on his squadron’s HH-60G farewell formation flight.
Air & Space Forces Magazine summarized the helicopter’s capabilities in its Sept. 24 report. Capable of carrying eight-plus passengers, the HH-60G could fly at 180 miles per hour with a range of 580 miles and could be refueled in the air. It carried two guns and a cargo hook rated to lift up to 8,000 pounds.
Its rotor blades folded so the aircraft could be loaded into cargo aircraft such as the C-5M Galaxy. Beyond combat rescue, the magazine noted, the Air Force used the Pave Hawk for disaster relief, humanitarian missions, and casualty and medical evacuations. At its peak, there were more than 100 HH-60Gs in the Air Force inventory, per the magazine.
A two-year drawdown, base by base
The retirement at Moffett was the last step in a phased drawdown that the magazine traced unit by unit. It began in the Pacific. HH-60W Jolly Green IIs from the 55th Rescue Generation Squadron arrived at Kadena Air Base, Japan, on Jan. 26, 2024, according to a Kadena Air Base report from that date, which quoted Master Sgt. Brian Donnelly of the 718th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron: “All HH-60G models will be replaced on Kadena.” Kadena retired its last G-model in August 2024, per Air & Space Forces Magazine. Gabreski Air National Guard Base in New York followed in October 2024, and Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and Aviano Air Base, Italy, both completed the switch in December 2024.
The Air Force Reserve’s last HH-60Gs left Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, in September 2025. In Alaska, airmen of the 210th Rescue Squadron flew the final training mission for the unit’s last remaining operational HH-60G on July 8, 2026, out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, according to an Alaska National Guard story by David Bedard, republished Aug. 14, 2026. That left the California Air Guard as the last operator.
The HH-60W Jolly Green II takes over
The replacement comes from the same family. The Defense Contract Management Agency described the HH-60W in a Nov. 8, 2022 article as “the latest upgrade of the Sikorsky H-60 series helicopter designed to replace the Air Force’s current HH-60G inventory.” That article covered a delivery to the 563rd Rescue Group in Nevada and cited a glass cockpit and reduced maintenance hours among the improvements.
Sikorsky’s parent company, Lockheed Martin, said in an Aug. 17, 2021 feature that the Air Force took delivery of the first production Jolly Green II on May 18, 2021, at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. The company said the new helicopter doubles internal fuel capacity without auxiliary tanks. That is the manufacturer’s description of the design.
According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, the service plans to field 102 Whiskeys, including 11 test and developmental aircraft, with the final delivery due in January 2030. The Air Force also asked for more than $200 million in its 2027 budget request for HH-60W upgrades. With tail 27045 retired and the few remaining G-models scheduled to be processed out by Sept. 30, 2026, the remaining Whiskey deliveries are the next milestone on the program’s record.
Top image: An HH-60G Pave Hawk of the 129th Rescue Wing, California Air National Guard, hovers over the Pacific during a training flight. Image Credit: California Air National Guard photo — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.