Coast Guard concerned about high cost of unmanned planes.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The U.S. Coast Guard is trying to keep its procurement options open, in anticipation of steep price tags for new aircraft and possible changes in its homeland-security missions. Specifically, the Coast Guard is concerned about making long-term commitments for purchases of unmanned aerial vehicles that it may not be able to afford.

Under the so-called Integrated Deepwater Systems modernization program, the Coast Guard will replace aging cutters, fixed-wing and rotary wing aircraft. UAVs potentially would take over many of the functions performed today by piloted aircraft.

But the rising cost of unmanned aircraft and the reluctance of the Federal Aviation Administration to allow them to fly in restricted national airspace are putting a damper on the Coast Guard's plan to allow UAVs to conduct port security and other coastal-area missions, officials said.

The Deepwater project is expected to command up to $20 billion during the next two decades. But that may not be enough to afford the $30 million-plus UAVs that the Defense Department is buying today. The two Deepwater prime contractors--Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp.-are responsible for conducting competitions for different pieces of the program, in order to secure lower prices for the Coast Guard.

A case in point is the Global Hawk high-altitude long-endurance UAV, currently operated by the U.S. Air Force. The Coast Guard would like to purchase Global Hawks in 2016, but at the current price of more than $35 million each (or more, depending on the sensors), it may be too expensive, said Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman, the program executive officer for Deepwater. Ideally, the Coast Guard would like to deploy one UAV and one helicopter on each cutter, he said.

For that reason, the Coast Guard wants to open up the competition in the program to more vendors, Stillman told a conference of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems. "We need a broad playing field," Stiliman said. It will be up to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to make that happen, he noted.

The Eagle Eye UAV is a tilt rotor aircraft, like the V-22 Osprey, which moves its propellers from a horizontal to a vertical position in order to achieve a helicopter-like takeoff and landing.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard agreed to purchase up to 69 vertical takeoff UAVs from Bell Helicopter Textron, a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin in the Deepwater program. The contract could be worth up to $1 billion, said a Bell news release.

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