Coast Guard hasn't given up on long delayed unmanned aerial vehicle plans.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* Gary Dehnel, who leads the Coast Guard's unmanned aerial systems acquisition program, had to remind attendees at the service's recent innovation expo that his office still exists.

"We did not terminate the land- or cutter-based UAS programs," he noted after recounting the long, tortuous history of the service's so far fruitless efforts to acquire its own remotely piloted aircraft.

The case for having long-endurance, over-the-horizon surveillance capabilities was made in the early years of the Deep-water modernization program. A conventional helicopter can cover about 9,000 nautical square miles during a mission as opposed to a vertical take-off and landing UAS, which could extend that to 56,000 nautical square miles and do so at a much lower operating cost.

The Eagle Eye vertical take-off and landing aircraft was in an advanced stage of development when that program was terminated in 2007 because of technical and budgetary concerns. Since then, the Coast Guard has

been left without acquisition funds to procure alternate aircraft. It has eyed the Navy's FireScout VTOL program, but officials at the expo reported no progress on that front.

A stopgap measure for a much smaller UAV is in the works, though.

The Coast Guard will test a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle that the Navy has used for the past six years to fly off its new National Security Cutters.

Bill Posage, who leads the service's unmanned systems program at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, said tests may begin from March to June 2012. The center will use R&D funds to test fly a ScanEagle UAS. The trials will inform the Coast Guard whether a small aircraft is feasible. If the program proceeds, the ultimate aircraft chosen may or may not be...