To better put the Coast Guard in a position to counter drug smuggling far from American shores, Senate Appropriators are recommending a significant boost in the service’s research and development (R&D) efforts for long-range unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

In its markup last week of the Department of Homeland Security’s FY ’17 spending request, the Senate Appropriations Committee proposes adding $18 million to the Coast Guard’s R&D branch specifically “to test and evaluate the use of ultra-long endurance UAS in support of the Department’s UAS needs, particularly for ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) in the source and transit zones.” The committee’s total proposal for Coast Guard R&D is $36.8 million.

Coast Guard photo of a Puma AE UAS successfully landing on the flight deck of the Polar icebreaker Healy. The aircraft's wings are designed to dislodge upon landing as a precaution against impact damage.
Coast Guard photo of a Puma AE UAS successfully landing on the flight deck of the Polar icebreaker Healy. The aircraft’s wings are designed to dislodge upon landing as a precaution against impact damage.

The drug transit zones are in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea and are considered the front lines in the Coast Guard’s and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) fight against illicit crime groups. The transit zones are closer to the source of the illicit drugs.

The panel says that these long-range UAS could loiter in an area longer and be more cost-effective than manned aircraft for ISR missions.

The committee’s report accompany its version of the DHS spending bill directs the Coast Guard to work with CBP and the department’s Science & Technology Directorate on the UAS efforts.

The Coast Guard doesn’t have any operational UAS assets, although it has pilot tested a number of hand-launched unmanned aircraft to improve its understanding of the systems for operations. The service in partnership with CBP’s Office of Air and Marine also developed a maritime variant of the border agency’s Predator B UAS.

The Guardian UAS provides ISR and targeting and acquisition capabilities in maritime environments. CBP operates two Guardians, which is advertised as supporting counter-narcotics operations in the drug source and transit zones as well as in the Southern California coastal and Gulf of Mexico border regions.

The Predator B is supplied by General Atomics and the Guardian variant includes structural, avionics and communications modifications as well as Raytheon’s [RTN] SeaVue marine search radar and an electro-optical/infrared sensor for maritime operations.

The Coast Guard for years has planned to operate small UAS from its National Security Cutter (NSC) fleet to enhance the ISR capabilities of these high-endurance vessels. However, the service still has no program of record to equip the NSCs with UAS.

“The domain awareness of the NSC was predicated upon an embarked UAS and the asset is incomplete without it,” the committee’s report says.

The report also says the Coast Guard is researching other UAS capabilities for use on its Fast Response Cutters, which operate in the littoral areas and are in production, and on the medium endurance Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), which is in a competitive design phase.

The Coast Guard originally planned to acquire eight NSCs, although Congress has funded a ninth and Senate appropriators are recommending $95 million in long-lead materials for a 10th ship. The service plans to acquire 58 FRCs and 25 OPCs.

The committee wants a briefing on all the Coast Guard’s UAS R&D and acquisition efforts within a month of the FY ’17 DHS Appropriations bill becoming law. The House still has to mark up its version of the bill.