The Coast Guard is still interested in acquiring unmanned aircraft, its commandant said Tuesday, but it’s still trying to find a platform that will meet its requirements as well as its modest budget.
“It’s an area we will invest in, but it’s going to be a very modest investment compared to the investments made by others,” Adm. Paul Zukunft said during a speech at a Navy League breakfast. “Our platforms are designed to accommodate unmanned technology. It really then comes down to a matter of budget priorities.”
Because the Coast Guard’s budget isn’t large enough to allow for expansive investments in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) research and development, it’s relying on other services to lay the groundwork. Zukunft noted that, years ago, the Coast Guard had put “a lot of money” into R&D for UAS, but ultimately those efforts did not keep pace with other unmanned aircraft development.
The best option for the Coast Guard is to jointly acquire that system with another service, allowing both to buy UAS cheaper through economies of scale, he said. It also can piggyback on other service’s investments in training as well, he added.
However, the other services’ UAS requirements do not always align with that of the Coast Guard. It experimented with the Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, manufactured by Northrop Grumman [NOC], aboard a National Security Cutter in 2014. Ultimately, the logistics tail was deemed to unwieldy—about three times the size of a detachment needed for a manned helicopter, he said.
“We’re looking at minimizing the tail that it takes and [also] looking at something more expendable, if you will,” he said.
This summer, the service evaluated a range of UAS, including a RQ-20 Puma and a RQ-12A Wasp from AeroVironment [AVAV] (Defense Daily, July 9).
Funds to procure UAS are limited in part because the Coast Guard is modernizing most of its cutter fleet. Zunkuft said he “would not be surprised” if Congress opts to appropriate funds for a ninth National Security Cutter (NSC) in the fiscal 2016 budget, something he would support as long as it did not impact other acquisition priorities, especially the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC).
“If it’s an adjustment to our topline budget, that’s certainly a capability we could put to use,” he said. “What I need to look at is the maintenance costs of a ninth ship over a lifecycle of 40 years, but if it’s an adjustment to our topline and it provides me capability where I need it, I would certainly be accepting of that.”
The Senate’s appropriations bill calls for funding a ninth NSC, while the House’s does not (Defense Daily, July 8). The Coast Guard’s program of record is for eight ships, which are manufactured by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] Ingalls Shipbuilding.
The Coast Guard also plans to begin in fiscal 2016 the acquisition the largest program in its history, the OPC. The 2016 and 2017 budgets will include long-lead funding for the new ship, he said. Within 18 to 24 months, one of the three competitors for the ship—Bollinger Shipyards, Eastern Shipbuilding and General Dynamics [GD] Bath Iron Works—is anticipated to begin “cutting steel.”
The service plans to buy at least 25 cutters, but it could end up with even more if Congress sees a need.
“Once you start building these and you start demonstrating value, sometimes it’s very difficult to stop at what that program of record is,” he said.