The Coast Guard last week issued a Request for Information (RFI) related to market research on land-based Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) that can perform multiple missions in the maritime environment.
The service is looking for UAS systems that can stay aloft at least 14 hours, have a mission radius up to 500 nautical miles, carry a 500-pound payload, and provide near real- time data distribution and target tracking.
The RFI was released by the Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center, which continues to study all options with regard to UAS. In addition, the service continues to work with its sister agency Customs and Border Protection, which is operating a small fleet of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator B UAS along the southern and northern borders of the United States, to at a minimum capitalize on their lessons learned (Defense Daily, Jan. 9).
The types of missions a land-based UAS could be used for include search and rescue, counter drug law enforcement, migrant interdiction, living marine resources, and defense readiness. The UAS would operate offshore beyond line-of-sight and would require its own sensors to do surveillance, detection, classification and identification of targets of interest.
The RFI is separate from a market survey the Coast Guard issued last fall for UAS that could operate from the National Security Cutter. [Sol. No. HSCG32-09-I-R00014. Contact: Ronald Rosenberg, contracting officer, 202-344-2985, [email protected]]