Tag Archives: scan eagle

Sending a lot of small UAVs to the WestPac

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Saw the below pop up on the DoD’s contracts list. Apparently, there are lots of hungry hungry hippos looking to get ScanEagle UAVs in the Western Pacific. Good for watching that littoral on the cheap.

DOD:

Insitu Inc., Bingen, Washington, is awarded $47,930,791 for firm-fixed-price delivery order N0001919F2602 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-17-G-0001) for 34 ScanEagle unmanned air vehicles for the governments of Malaysia (12); Indonesia (8); Philippines (8); and Vietnam (6). In addition, this order provides for spare payloads, spare and repair parts, support equipment, tools, training, technical services, and field service representatives. Work will be performed in Bingen, Washington (77 percent); and multiple shore and at sea locations in Malaysia (9 percent); Philippines (5 percent); Vietnam (5 percent); and Indonesia (4 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2022. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $47,930,791 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This order combines purchases for the governments of Malaysia ($19,329,334; 40 percent); Philippines ($9,633,665; 20 percent); Vietnam ($9,770,120; 20 percent); and Indonesia ($9,197,672; 20 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Of note, ScanEagles have been deployed from vessels as small as 65-feet oal, making even patrol craft capable of operating these interesting little UAVs as they can launch from a small catapult and be captured in-flight to be recovered in very little deck space.

In short, ScanEagle is essentially the WWII floatplane of the 2020s.

The Vought OS2U Kingfisher that appears here on the USS Missouri (BB-63) shakedown cruise was taken after an abandon ship drill in August 1944. (Click to embiggen)

Coast Guard stepping up to the plate with more cutter-borne drones

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Insitu’s ScanEagle drone platform was chosen by the USCG last week for a $117 million contract after an RFP issued in February to provide small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) ISR services aboard the entire 12-ship National Security Cutter fleet.

ScanEagle has over a million hours in the air so far, and a stepped-up version, Integrator, has been adopted by the Marines as the RQ-21 Blackjack, so it is safe to say that it is a mature program.

The service deployed an interim sUAS capability on USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752) – an NSC based in Alameda, California – three times in 2017 and used the data gathered to refine the concept of operations and RFP requirements. During the tests, ScanEagle had directly assisted the ship’s crews in seizing more than $1.5 billion of cocaine and heroin.

Stratton with ScanEagle on catapult launcher/carrier to port and an MH-65 stbd. Note the CIWS above the LSO station in the twin hangar. Make no mistake, the NSC is a frigate-sized warship

The Coast Guard began infrastructure installation for more UAS use on their NSCs in April 2018, with plans to begin installing hardware on Cutters James in fall 2018, Munro in late winter 2019 and Bertholf in late spring or early summer 2019. NSC’s have a dual hangar which can permit a USCG helicopter (MH-65) to operate independently of the UAS det.

According to Janes, the drones will be used in a “contractor-owned, contractor-operated” program where Insitu personnel deploying with the cutter will operate the ScanEagle platform for 200 hours per 30 day period. They will also use a Ball Aerospace laser marker, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), and communications relay packages.

Although it is not mentioned, Insitu has been pushing ScanEagle with a ViDAR payload. Small, light and self-contained, ViDAR allows effective primary search with smaller UAVs and aircraft without radar, dramatically improving the cost-effectiveness of maritime operations such as search and rescue, maritime patrol, anti-piracy, anti-narcotics and border protection.

The Coast Guard has also been using smaller Puma hand-launched UAS from other platforms, such as icebreakers and buoy tenders.

Kevin Vollbrecht, an engineering development technician with Aerovironment Inc., launches a PUMA AE unmanned aircraft system from the flight deck of Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star during Operation Deep Freeze 2016 in the Southern Ocean Jan. 3, 2016. The UAS will play a role in selecting the optimal route through pack ice as the cutter transits to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst)

Coasties step up their UAV game

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USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752), the Coast Guard’s third 418-foot Legend-Class National Security Cutter, just returned to Alameda following 98-day counter-smuggling patrol.

While underway she intercepted three suspected smuggling vessels carrying more than 3,600 pounds of cocaine, completed 150 drills associated with her biannual Tailored Ship’s Training Availability, made a port call at Golfito, Costa Rica to conduct some humanitarian efforts, and brought an additional five tons of blow back to port seized by other cutters for offload.

But she also made a little history by deploying with a ScanEagle sUAS. Stratton has used Scan Eagle in proof of concept tests previously (see the below image of the UAV being “trapped”) but this is the first actual deployment.

The Unmanned Aerial Surveillance aircraft Scan Eagle is recovered on the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton during a demonstration approximately 150 miles off the Pacific Coast, Aug. 13, 2012. The Scan Eagle is being tested for capabilities that will create a reliable reconnaissance system for all 11 Coast Guard missions. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Clayton.

From the USCG’s presser:

Stratton’s crew made history by being the first Coast Guard cutter to deploy fully equipped with a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) for an entire patrol. The sUAS had been previously used in drug interdiction as part of field testing but had not deployed aboard to a cutter for an entire patrol. The sUAS flew more than 35 sorties, accumulated over 260 flight hours and provided real-time surveillance and detection imagery during interdiction operations. This real-time imagery and persistent surveillance capability assisted Stratton’s embarked helicopter and law enforcement teams with the interdictions.

RN to trim UAVs, but will at least keep the boomers

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The aging HM Submarine Vanguard (S28), commissioned in 1993, is the lead ship of the RN's four boomers.

The aging HM Submarine Vanguard (S28), commissioned in 1993, is the lead ship of the RN’s four boomers.

It looks like the Brits will keep their SSBN fleet for another generation with MPs voting overwhelmingly in favor of renewing their aging Trident submarine fleet by 471 to 117. Opponents to the renewal of the Faslane, Scotland-based subs came from the Scottish National Party (SNP) and parts of the Labour Party, however new PM Theresa May stressed lawmakers to back Trident, not only to protect Britain from growing threats from Russia and North Korea, but also to protect thousands of jobs in Scotland and elsewhere post-Brexit.

The Brits, along with former WWII Big Five countries U.S., Russia, France and China, are the only operators of SSBNs, and the only other country besides the U.S. to operate Trident SLBMs (D5 variants) from their four 15,900-ton Vanguard -class submarines.

They form the UKs only nuclear deterrent.

Meanwhile, maritime surveillance capabilities of the British Royal Navy are to experience a setback in 2017 due to budget constraints. Janes has it that the ScanEagle UAS will leave RN service, without being replaced, in November 2017.

Since 2014, ScanEagle flights have operated from the Type 23 frigates HMS Somerset, HMS Northumberland, HMS Kent, HMS Richmond, and HMS St Albans, with HMS Portland now deploying. As well as using the UAS in primary ISR and overwatch roles, the RN has also conducted tactical development to explore the utility of ScanEagle for other tasks such as covert surveillance, anti-submarine warfare, naval gunfire support spotting, and support to Harpoon missile surface engagements.

But don’t worry, the RM is now opening combat roles to females, so there is that.