By Geoff Fein
The Coast Guard needs to document its short-term strategy to mitigate the maritime surveillance gap resulting from canceling the Eagle Eye Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VUAV) program, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general.
The June 2009 report (OIG-09-82) added that Coast Guard “should continue to work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and International Civil Aviation Organization to ensure that future unmanned aircraft acquisitions meet regulatory requirements that may otherwise restrict the operation of unmanned aircraft in national and international airspace.”
The Coast Guard agreed with the inspector general’s findings and is taking corrective action to address the recommendations, the report said.
“We consider both recommendations resolved, but they will remain open until we receive additional information regarding the Coast Guard’s implementation of the corrective actions indicated,” the report added.
The original Deepwater contract called for the Coast Guard to buy 69 VUAVs for approximately $425 million. The first eight drones were to be delivered in 2006.
However, in 2007, the Coast Guard canceled the effort by Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT] to develop its Eagle Eye TR916, due to development risks and lack of funding beyond 2007, according to the report.
In April ’06, Bell’s only Eagle Eye prototype crashed during a test flight (Defense Daily, Jan. 11, 2007).
In fall 2008, the Coast Guard released a Request for Information (RFI) for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) that could eventually operate from its National Security Cutters (NSC) to enhance their ability to conduct various missions such as drug and migrant interdiction (Defense Daily, Oct. 30).
According to the DHS inspector general’s report, “without a VUAV, the aerial surveillance capability of the NSC is reduced from 58,160 square nautical miles to 18,320 square nautical miles.”
That would result in the NSC having an operational effectiveness of the Hamilton-class high endurance cutter that NSC was built to replace.
“Hamilton-class cutters are currently deployed with a single helicopter programmed to conduct up to four hours of aerial surveillance per day,” according to the report. “In contrast, the NSC was projected to be deployed with aviation assets ranging from one manned helicopter and two VUAVs, to four VUAVs without a helicopter. Together these assets were to provide up to 16 hours of aerial surveillance per day for each cutter.”
The service’s planned Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) would face a similar reduction in aerial surveillance capability, according to the report.
The Coast Guard had proposed compensating for the surveillance capability gap by increasing the flight hours of its HH-65 Dolphin, as well as the possibility of increasing the flight hours of its medium-range surveillance and transport aircraft, the report added.
“The Coast Guard has said that these short-term solutions come at a higher price per flight hour than the planned VUAV,” according to the report. “We are concerned that the diversion of these assets to compensate for the NSC surveillance capability gap also may impact other Coast Guard mission requirements.”
The inspector general’s report notes the Coast Guard continues to examine unmanned aircraft alternatives. In February, DHS approved the Coast Guard’s strategy for determining the most effective unmanned aircraft system to operate from the NSC.
One system the Coast Guard is keeping a close eye on is Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] Fire Scout. But before the Coast Guard settles on Fire Scout as its ship-launched unmanned aerial system (UAS), the service is still waiting for the Navy to integrate a maritime surface search radar on the platform (Defense Daily, Jan. 9).
The Navy is buying a number of Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing UAVs to go onboard the Littoral Combat Ship as a key component of the mission packages that will provide LCS with antisubmarine and mine countermeasure systems.
The Coast Guard’s research for a replacement for Eagle Eye also includes air safety analysis to determine the requirements necessary to address regulatory issues that may restrict UAV operations in the service’s area of operations, according to the inspector general’s report.
That report is expected to be completed in March 2010, according to the Coast Guard.
Because the FAA and International Civil Aviation Organization classify UAVs as aircraft, the unmanned systems are subject to the existing aircraft flight rules and regulations when operating in national and international airspace, according to the report.
Although the Coast Guard has worked with the FAA to address regulatory requirements such as airworthiness certification standards, the service has not resolved how it would operate the VUAV in airspace controlled by either the FAA or its international counterpart, the report added.
Central to the issue of operating a UAV in national airspace is the ability to see and avoid other air traffic, the report said.
“To meet this requirement the Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) proposed using a High Frequency Surface Wave Radar. The High Frequency Surface Wave Radar was a U.S. Navy development program that was outside of the Coast Guard’s control,” the report said.
The radar system was to be installed on both the NSC and OPC to provide detect, see and avoid capability. However, the Navy canceled the effort in 2003 due to technological problems, the report added.
The Coast Guard and ICGS, a joint venture between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin [LMT], “had no assurance the High Frequency Surface Wave Radar would have satisfied FAA airspace deconfliction requirements,” the inspector general’s report said.
“According to the FAA, a detect, sense (see), and avoid system capable of meeting FAA requirements does not yet exist,” the report noted.
“Without detect, see, and avoid technology for UAVs that satisfies FAA requirements for unrestricted access to U.S. airspace, or a FAA accepted airspace safety risk analysis and usage plan, it is unlikely that unmanned aircraft will be authorized for unrestricted use by the Coast Guard in performing missions in FAA regulated airspace,” the report said.
The Coast Guard intends to operate its VUAV over high seas in both national and international airspace, relying on the NSC’s air search radar capability to mitigate risk by clearing the airspace around the UAV, the report added.
The Coast Guard was also exploring the use of “Due Regard” provisions.
“These provisions would have permitted the Coast Guard to operate the VUAV in international airspace even though it had not met the FAA’s detect, see, and avoid requirements,” the report said. “The Due Regard provisions allow the Coast Guard to deviate from normally accepted flight procedures by requiring that it assume full responsibility for separation of its aircraft from all other aircraft operating in the same international airspace.”
While the Coast Guard said the likelihood of encountering other air traffic would be relatively low, because it would conduct operations more than 50 nautical miles from shore, in areas such as the Caribbean, the proximity of many islands and countries might be problematic, the report said.
The Coast Guard is conducting airspace studies to determine the closest approach to shore for VUAV operations that will meet FAA safety criteria, the report added.