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Coast Guard interested in Customs prototype

The Coast Guard and Customs Border Protection will be testing a prototype of the Predator unmanned aerial system in January, according to the Coast Guard. The testing will be based in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The sister agencies within the Department of Homeland Security modified an MQ9B Predator, which had a mishap last year, said Lt. Cmdr. Damon Williams, a liaison with the Coast Guard/CBP joint program office in Washington.

The aircraft, also known as Predator B, is made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. and is owned by CBP.

The Coast Guard has been working with CBP to come up with its own version of Predator B, which CBP uses to patrol along the U.S. border with Mexico. The Coast Guard stood up its own UAS training branch in August in Mobile, Ala., to work on those requirements and create training policies.

Eventually, the Coast Guard will field its own UAS, and pilots will train in Mobile; but the service has not settled on a system yet. It will likely have two versions, Williams said. One will be similar to Predator B, which is land-based. The other will be a much smaller version that can be launched from cutters, he said. The Navy is field-testing a cutter-based UAS, the Fire Scout, aboard the Navy frigate McInerney.