The US Coast Guard will spend the next few months ploughing through reams of data from two exercises designed to shape its plans on how to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as part of Project Deepwater, a briefing at the show heard.
The huge project to revitalise the USCG's air and ship assets includes the use of UAVs to extend the reach of sensors as part of the huge drive to improve homeland security. Both shipboard and land-based UAVs are being mooted.
One exercise in Alaska last November was designed to see what scale of resources would be required to operate UAVs from such a remote area.
Analysis
"We learned: 'Take jumper cables'," said Lt Cdr Troy Beshears, UAV platform manager for the USCG dryly. Although analysis of the two exercises was still under way, "my gut feeling is that we need the assets".
The baseline proposals for Deepwater UAVs mooted the use of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk, although possibly just through buying time on another operator's machines. "We see some sort of high- or medium-altitude long endurance UAVs [being used] just because of the persistence they give you," said Beshears.
He was bullish about prospects for the Bell Eagle Eye tiltrotor UAV, which is scheduled to be deployed aboard the Coast Guard's new Maritime Security Cutter (Large), formerly known as the National Security Cutter.
Source: Flight Daily News
