The Coast Guard needs to look toward acquiring unmanned aerial systems to expand the fleet’s reach and area of coverage, the service’s commandant said last week.
“Ultimately we need some sort of unmanned system that is going to be up there and give us a little bit more persistent presence and a broad area to be able to search,” Adm. Robert Papp said at a breakfast hosted Friday by the Navy League.
The Coast Guard is in the middle of procuring its new advanced fleet of National Security Cutters (Legend-class). The third of the class, the Stratton, was delivered in September and the service plans to build eight.
“The National Security Cutter will never attain its full potential without some sort of unmanned system,” Papp said.
The commandant said the unmanned system would not necessarily have to be ship borne, and could come in the form of a Predator.
“If we had everything we wanted you’d have some sort of broad area coverage unmanned system and then some tactical level system that you can launch from the ship as well,” he said.