Coast Guard concerned about high cost of unmanned planes.

The U.S. Coast Guard is trying to keep its procurement options open, in anticipation of steep price tags for new aircraft and possible changes in its homeland-security missions. Specifically, the Coast Guard is concerned about making long-term commitments for purchases of unmanned aerial vehicles that it may not be able to afford.

Under the so-called Integrated Deepwater Systems modernization program, the Coast Guard will replace aging cutters, fixed-wing and rotary wing aircraft. UAVs potentially would take over many of the functions performed today by piloted aircraft.

But the rising cost of unmanned aircraft and the reluctance of the Federal Aviation Administration to allow them to fly in restricted national airspace are putting a damper on the Coast Guard's plan to allow UAVs to conduct port security and other coastal-area missions, officials said.

The Deepwater project is expected to command up to $20 billion during the next two decades. But that may not be enough to afford the $30 million-plus UAVs that the Defense Department is buying today. The two Deepwater prime contractors--Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp.-are responsible for conducting competitions for different pieces of the program, in order to secure lower prices for the Coast Guard.

A case in point is the Global Hawk high-altitude long-endurance UAV, currently operated by the U.S. Air Force. The Coast Guard would like to purchase Global Hawks in 2016, but at the current price of more than $35 million each (or more, depending on the sensors), it may be too expensive, said Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman, the program executive officer for Deepwater. Ideally, the Coast Guard would like to deploy one UAV and one helicopter on each cutter, he said.

For that reason, the Coast Guard wants to open up the competition in the program to more vendors, Stillman told a conference of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems. "We need a broad playing field," Stiliman said. It will be up to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to make that happen, he noted.

The Eagle Eye UAV is a tilt rotor aircraft, like the V-22 Osprey, which moves its propellers from a horizontal to a vertical position in order to achieve a helicopter-like takeoff and landing.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard agreed to purchase up to 69 vertical takeoff UAVs from Bell Helicopter Textron, a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin in the Deepwater program. The contract could be worth up to $1 billion, said a Bell news release.

Designed in the early 1990s, the Eagle Eye was intended for naval gunfire support, battle damage assessment, over-the-horizon targeting, communications, data relay and electronic counter measures. The manufacturer says Eagle Eye can remain on station for up to three hours to transmit real- time day and night imagery.

Under the agreement with the Coast Guard, deliveries would begin in 2006 and continue through 2018.

Some critics question whether the Eagle Eye is the right choice for the Coast Guard's dose-to-the-port security missions, where ships have small decks--which may not be able to accommodate the 15-foot Eagle Eye wingspan.

The concerns about Eagle Eye being "too much airplane for port surveillance" are legitimate, even though the Coast Guard is committed to buying the aircraft, Stillman said. Further, the apprehension about the size of Eagle Eye is symptomatic of a larger "brand problem" in the Deepwater program.

The Deepwater label may be a misnomer, said Stillman. "A large part of this system is tied to the coastal community, within 50 miles from the beach." Specifically for the port surveillance mission, "Is Eagle Eye the right aircraft?" he asked rhetorically. "In part it is; in part it may not be."

In an interview, Stillman said the Coast Guard is not discounting the possibility of buying the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, which Northrop Grumman developed for the Navy and Marine Corps and the Navy subsequently cancelled.

Northrop Grumman is marketing the Fire Scout under a new name, the Sea Scout, to make it more attractive to the Coast Guard and to position it as a possible candidate to operate from the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship, to be built in 2005. The Coast Guard is eyeing the LCS as a possible option to replace its medium-size patrol cutters.

"If there are problems with Eagle Eye, conceivably we would look at Fire Scour," Stillman said. "But Eagle Eye is the right aircraft for us right now"

Regardless of which UAV it buys, the Coast Guard won't be able to fly any UAVs near the coast, unless air space coordination issues are ironed out with the FAA. This potentially could derail any efforts to deploy UAVs in the future, Stillman said. The FAA wants UAVs to be able to safely operate with other traffic. But the agency has been slow is specifying its requirements and setting dear goals, he said. "The FAA has to define the way ahead," said Stillman. "A lot of work needs to be done. ... The goal is to have this resolved by 2006."

Other types of unmanned vehicles, such as submersibles and surface boats, could be useful for the Coast Guard, but the service is unlikely to be able to afford them, unless they are commercial off-the-shelf technologies, officials said.

For port surveillance, particularly, small unmanned vehicles are desirable, Stillman said. "In the long term, I hope the Department of Homeland Security perceives this technology as the way ahead, if we truly want surveillance in the coastal areas.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security plans to create a technology development office, called the Homeland Security Advanced Research Program, which would operate much like the Pentagon's DARPA.

This agency is expected to receive $500 million over the next five years, of which no less than 10 percent is supposed to go the Coast Guard, according to congressional language. Last year, the Coast Guard had a $22 million budget for research and development.

"Money is a big issue," said Rich Hansen, a Coast Guard research and development manager. As the Coast Guard begins to integrate with other agencies within the mammoth the Department of Homeland Security, he said, "We are going on the assumption that we are cash poor."

RELATED ARTICLE: Army to field four classes of UAVs

In the Army of the future, a brigade would bring to the battle no less than 200 unmanned aircraft, ranging from small platoon-class vehicles to larger, high-endurance aircraft equipped with heat-seeking missiles.

The service's overarching modernization program, the Future Combat System, will develop four classes of UAVs. Program officials are sketchy on the details of what exactly each class will look like. So far, they have outlined draft guidelines for potential contractors, who will be competing separately for each class of UAVs.

Class 1 will be a platoon-class small aircraft. Class 2 will operate at the company level, class 3 will be attached to the battalion and class 4 to the brigade commander. Each FCS brigade would have 36 class-1, 36 class-2, 12 class-3 and 16 class-4 aircraft.

The FCS program generally has been described as a network of ground and air vehicles--both manned and un-piloted. A team of Army and Boeing Co. FCS project officials are working on the specific requirements for UAVs, said Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Yakovac, program executive officer for ground combat systems.

The most "undefined" of the four classes of UAVs is the brigade-level aircraft. The funding and design of the FCS class-4 UAVs closely are tied to the Army's next-generation helicopter, the Comanche. The service cut more than 600 helicopters out of the program (about half of the total), on the assumption that they would be replaced with UAVs.

For that reason, it is possible that the class 4 may include two types of aircraft, said Lt. Col. John Kelleher, a UAV program officer at Army headquarters.

One option would a futuristic aircraft, called UCAR (unmanned combat armed rotorcraft), now in development by three competing industry teams. The Army has not yet decided whether the UCAR will be rotary or fixed wing, Kelleher said. The UCAR could end up as the companion to the Comanche or as a division/corps level tactical UAV, known as the extended-range multipurpose aircraft or ERMP.

The Army funded the ERMP program before FCS got under way, Kelleher explained. "Now, we want to integrate ERMP with FCS. ... We need to synchronize those two efforts."

Yakovac did not discount the possibility that the Army also may buy a new high-altitude, long-endurance UAV under the FCS program. "A decision has not been made if the Army is going to buy a separate ERMP or a separate HALE Or how the companion to the Comanche fit into all this," said Yakovac.

He noted that the A-160 vertical-takeoff Hummingbird UAV--now in developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency--could fill the ERMP role. "If the Army decides to go with rotary wing for ERMP, the A-160 would fit that requirement."

Ideally, the Army would like to consolidate the ERMP program into the FCS class-4 A-160 said Yakovac. "We are asking industry to bid on class 4. If it looks that it meets the ERMP requirement, we could combine the two."