UAVs get congressional support in latest budget

The future of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) got a touch brighter last week when President Bush signed the new DHS appropriations bill. House appropriators, citing ongoing cost and reliability issues, had threatened to withhold funding, but in the end were convinced the small craft could play a critical role in border security. Under the bill, Customs and Border Protection will receive $20 million for the acquisition of UAVs and related support systems, and the Coast Guard will get about $5 million for similar puposes.

Of two appropriations, we cast special attention on that for the Coast Guard. The service’s Deepwater modernization program envisions a robust deployment of UAVs, not only for traditional search and rescue operations but also as a way to surveil suspicious ships until boarding craft or helicopters can reach the scene. Among the technological advances involved in the forthcoming deployment of Bell Helicopter Textron’s Eagle Eye UAVs, in development since the mid-1990s, is the ability to accomodate the close quarters of a cutter by folding up the tail and nose.

Each Eagle Eye costs $5.5 million, has a maximum speed of 185 knots, can travel 100 nautical miles, spend three hours in surveillance, and return to the ship with twenty minutes of fuel to spare. There are no plans to weaponize the system, but it has been designed to accomodate a laser designator, an option currently under consideration by the Marines.

-read more in this Government Executive report; read more about the Eagle Eye program in this National Defense Magazine report