Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) that are patrolling the seas are helping to prevent boats carrying illegal migrants from departing from a country and head for the U.S., Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan told a House panel on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard is contracting with Saildrone, a manufacturer and operator of a family of autonomous wind-powered USVs that provide maritime domain awareness to customers. Saildrone is providing data and information to the Coast Guard under contracts awarded in September 2022 that leverage the Sail drone company’s 10-meter-long Voyager USVs, which are typically equipped with sensors like radar and a thermal camera, and machine learning capabilities.
“They have sensors so they provide maritime domain awareness and create a presence that those attempting to depart illegally know they’re out there,” Fagan told the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. “It helps to prevent those departures.”
The USVs are “fully autonomous” and operate from a command center on the West Coast, she said.
Fagan was responding to a question asked by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), ranking member on the panel, who wanted an explanation about Saildrone. He also asked about the challenges and trends the Coast Guard is seeing with migrants in the maritime domain.
Fagan answered that for the Coast Guard “this is life-saving work” because people are making the trek in “unseaworthy conveyances.” She said that 18 months ago the migrant flows through the Caribbean, Florida Strait, and Windward Pass were “significant” but that is no longer the case.
The decline in migrant flows is due to “policy clarity” and the use of USVs, Fagan said.
On other matters, Fagan also said:
- She recently met with the CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, which is under contract to build three polar security cutters (PSCs) to discuss the need to get to detailed design on the heavy icebreaking ships and cut steel on the first vessel this year. Once the detailed design is complete, the Coast Guard will update delivery dates for the ships. The current baseline for the PSC program is for delivery of the first ship by June 2027, three years later than originally scheduled.
- An unfunded priority list the Coast Guard provided Congress for consideration in the fiscal year 2025 appropriation includes $25 million to outfit a commercially-available icebreaker that the service plans to acquire to help fill a near-term gap in polar icebreaking needs. The $25 million will help bring the commercial ship to initial operating capability but more funding will be needed to retrofit the ship to full operating capability, the costs of which and schedule are still uncertain until the Coast Guard takes possession of the ship. Previous Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz told the same panel in May 2022 that fully outfitting a commercial icebreaker would take between $125 million to $250 million. Congress provided $125 million in FY ’24 to acquire the commercial icebreaker.