USCG to begin testing unmanned surface vehicles off Hawaii

The U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center, in partnership with local Coast Guard units, will be conducting test and evaluation of unmanned surface vehicles off the south shore of Oahu from October 7th through November 5th, the USCG says in its news release.

The tests will focus on autonomous vessel systems from Saildrone and Spatial Integration Systems, in addition to a USCG owned autonomous research vessel made by Metal Shark.

This evaluation will examine each vessels’ ability to provide persistent maritime domain awareness, especially in remote areas of the oceans. While potentially applicable to many Coast Guard missions, there is potential these technologies will help enable the Coast Guard to better protect critical natural living marine resources from Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and other illicit activities.