Sea hawks: border agencies to fly maritime unpiloted aircraft in Caribbean.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITYBEAT

* Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard will begin flying a maritime version of the MQ-9 Predator B Guardian unmanned aircraft vehicle out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Fla., beginning in January, retired Air Force Gen. Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner of the agency's air and marine division, told National Defense.

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"This will be the first operational maritime variant of the Predator series," he said.

CBP and the Coast Guard accepted the aircraft at a ceremony in Palmdale, Calif. Operational tests will be carried out through January and February with the remotely piloted aircraft beginning shortly afterwards to patrol regions of the Caribbean that are known for drug smuggling, he said.

CBP formed a joint program with the Coast Guard in March 2008 to investigate the possibility of flying a maritime version of the Air Force's MQ-9 Reaper. It has kept the Predator name because it doesn't want to confuse it with the Air Force's weaponized version of the aircraft. The homeland security version does not carry arms, said Kimberly Kasitz, spokeswoman for the aircraft's manufacturer, General Atomics.

CBP currently has five remotely piloted aircraft carrying out surveillance on the southern and northern U.S. borders.

Along with patrolling the border, the UAVs have been used in humanitarian missions as well, such as the Red River floods last year in North Dakota.

"Clearly it would support a lot of humanitarian missions that the Coast Guard and we are responsible...