Maritime surveillance: Coast Guard not yet ready to commit to unmanned aircraft.

• Author: Rusling, Matthew
• Position: Coast Guard

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The Coast Guard's unmanned aerial vehicle program has yet to get off the ground.

Last year, plans were halted to acquire a vertical-takeoff UAV, called Eagle Eye. At the time, officials said the project had to be cancelled for financial reasons. Now the Coast Guard intends to wait until 2010 to decide what aircraft it may buy.

At a time when military UAV orders are ramping up, the Coast Guard has decided to take a more cautious approach. Experts speculate that the Coast Guard's future UAV purchases will follow the Navy's direction.

The Coast Guard hinted last year that it may buy the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, which the Navy plans to acquire as a surveillance asset that will operate off the decks of the new littoral combat ship. The Army also is a Fire Scout customer. The Coast Guard continues to monitor what the Navy and the Army will do with the Fire Scout, said Larry Dickerson, aviation analyst at Forecast International.

For the Coast Guard, it would make sense to wait until the Navy completes the testing, flight trials and the development of the sensors before it can decide whether the aircraft meets its needs, Dickerson said.

The UAVs are part of the Integrated Deepwater Systems, a 25-year, $24 billion effort to modernize the Coast Guard's aging ships, aircraft and communications systems.

Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis for the Teal Group, agreed that the Coast Guard is unlikely to commit to buying the Fire Scout until all tests and development are finalized. "They are basically watching the testing that the Navy will be doing on the Fire Scout in January," he said.

Another reason why the Coast Guard's UAV program is moving slowly is that the service has struggled to get the larger Deepwater project on track. The National Security Cutters, from which the UAVs would be launched, are behind schedule.

The Deepwater troubles prompted Congress to intervene and pass new legislation that prohibits the Coast Guard from using a private contractor as a "lead systems integrator" and gives the Coast Guard until October 2011 to assume the LSI role for all Deepwater assets. Previously, the LSI was a contractor team of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. The Coast Guard recently set up its own acquisition organization in-house and announced it will phase out the LSI.

Until the new ships are straightened out, said Dickerson, "the UAVs are kind of pointless to have. Its not like they're in a...