The UK's Marine and Fisheries Agency is proposing holding a demonstration of using unmanned air vehicles in maritime surveillance roles as a precursor to a possible operational requirement after 2009.
The agency plans to offer UAV manufacturers the opportunity to demonstrate operations in conjunction with a Royal Navy Fisheries Protection Squadron patrol vessel as part of the June 2008 Parc Aberporth UAV air show. That would be followed by a working trial of systems, again in co-operation with a patrol boat, in March 2009.
MFA has had five-year service contracts in place with UK-based Directflight since 1998 to conduct surveillance operations using two Cessna F406 Caravan II single-engined turboprops. Those two aircraft perform 1,000h of surveillance annually using forward looking infrared video cameras and surface search radar.
The proposed demonstration and trial process is intended to inform the agency on what capabilities a UAV could provide as part of a new tender for aerial services once the current arrangement with Directflight expires.
The head of the MFA's current aerial surveillance requirements review, Graham Ford-Keyte, says: "I have to be in a situation where I am committing to another five-year contract and we need to know the way forward."
Speaking on 14 November at the Royal Aeronautical Society's "UAV Systems: Unlocking the marketplace" conference in London, Ford-Keyte said the demonstration plan is to be flagged with other UK government agencies from late November to scope out potential issues surrounding the plan.
He said that the proposed demonstrations are intended to explore two UAV concepts of operation. The first would be based on attaching the UAV directly to the fisheries patrol vessel to act as an extension to its visual horizon as well as supporting boarding and inspection tasks. This could involve operating the UAV off the back of the vessel Ford-Keyte says.
The second concept is to use the UAV as a strategic surveillance asset performing wide area surveillance missions similar to that currently conducted by the Directflight aircraft.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
