Coast Guard tests Navy's Fire Scout aboard National Security Cutter.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie
• Position: Homeland Security News

The Coast Guard's long quest to acquire a ship-based unmanned aerial vehicle is well into its second decade.

The service in December launched a Navy MQ-8B Fire Scout off a National Security Cutter, Navy Capt. Jeff Dodge, program manager for the Navy's PMA-266, the program office for multi-mission tactical unmanned air systems, said during a recent press conference.

The Coast Guard spent one week assessing the Fire Scout, he said.

"We took [the Fire Scout] out and we showed the Coast Guard what you could do with a radar MQ-8 from the shipboard environment. We got some great video back [and] got some good images," Dodge said.

A decade ago, a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle was an integral part of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System, a 25-year effort to modernize its ships and aircraft. Bell Helicopter was initially tasked with developing a tilt-rotor UAV called the EagleEye similar in design the V-22 Osprey, but small enough to fit in shipboard hangars. It was intended to be deployed from the new cutters, and officials touted the longer range and endurance that a remotely piloted aircraft would have over manned helicopters. The EagleEye program was canceled because of cost overruns and technical problems in 2006.

Coast Guard officials have said that the Fire Scout is a potential EagleEye replacement. However, Congress never allocated any funding for the service to embark on a new UAV acquisition program.

In a joint program with Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard has deployed a land-based maritime Predator...