The Coast Guard RDT&E Program

By J.R. Wilson

One of the most tumultuous years in U.S. history was 1968 – war, assassinations, riots, the lunar landing program, a bitterly fought presidential election. It also was the year the U.S. Coast Guard, the smallest of the uniformed services, then part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), sought to close a perceived gap between existing Coast Guard capabilities and the technological needs of the service: The Coast Guard Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) program was created to identify fairly high-use technologies used by the four Department of Defense (DOD) services or part of the growing commercial technology world, and apply them to Coast Guard requirements. Unlike some of the DOD labs, it was not designed to do basic research.

“We were established on 1 November 1968. Four years later, the Research and Development Center [RDC] was established with 160 people, the first time we had our own lab. In 1968, we had a fire safety research facility, which today is called the Joint Maritime Test Facility and linked to NRL [U.S. Naval Research Laboratory],” said Wendy Chaves, chief of RDT&E under the Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate.

“In November 1981, they decided to close the center, and we lost about 34 personnel before they changed their minds in September 1982. We never fully shut down, but once the decision was reversed, we had to hire new people to replace those we lost in those 10 months.”

In 2003, the Coast Guard was moved from DOT to the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where the RDC has formed a close relationship with DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).

Throughout its history, the center has focused on a number of broad areas, with those adjusted periodically depending on the needs of the service. Today, they are working on six such categories:

1. Unmanned systems

2. Arctic operations

3. Intelligence and cyber

4. Waterways management and environmental response

5. Sensor optimization, automation, and visualization

6. Operational performance improvements and modeling.

Each of those also is broken down into general categories of work. The office also works on some non-R&D efforts.

The RDT&E program is exploring the potential operational use of small form factor satellite technology, known as CubeSats, to improve communications and increase maritime domain awareness. As part of this research, the program collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to design, assemble, launch, and deploy two CubeSats for on-orbit testing. For this project, the program deployed ground stations in Fairbanks, Alaska, (pictured) and New London, Connecticut, using a standard architecture and network.

All Images Courtesy of Coast Guard Office of Research, Development, Test & Evaluation unless otherwise noted

“The program now includes three sets of people: R&D, innovation, and acquisition test and development. As a part of those three functions, there are technical and support elements, the latter including financial, human resources, office management, etc.,” Chaves said. “In 2016, the innovation program was reorganized to fall within the office of RDT&E; prior to that, it was in a separate office that no longer exists. Since that happened, we’ve found a lot to leverage between innovation and R&D.

“One thing that has evolved in recent years is [that] emerging technology has become more fast-paced. In our partnership with DHS S&T, we stood up the Science and Technology Innovation Center [STIC] to bring things to the Coast Guard faster. It is jointly funded with DHS S&T. We work on things that have rapid transition, such as doing a limited user evaluation on existing technologies, both military and commercial.”

Those changes also have led to new methods to build the RDT&E portfolio for each budget year.

“Each year, we ask the whole Coast Guard to send us any challenges they want RDT&E to help them with. We then bring in stakeholders from across the service to vote on a prioritization list. We take the highest ranking of those and send them to a flag panel, which helps us ensure our portfolio is linked to the needs of the service,” Chaves explained.

The RDT&E program conducted an in situ test burn of diesel fuel at the Joint Maritime Test Facility in Mobile, Alabama, in September 2018. In situ burning is an effective method of removing large-scale spilled oil from the ocean. The facility, which uses waves to simulate at-sea conditions, is a fundamental part of advancing the science of in situ burning, including equipment testing and smoke reduction.

Coast Guard image

“Once something is in the portfolio, we work on all of them – the process ensures those are priorities to the Coast Guard before we start working on them. We don’t have a lot of resources, so we have to make sure what we do will have the most impact for the Coast Guard.”

The portfolio prioritization process also is needed to help RDT&E deal with the massive explosion in technological change and development in recent years, which could easily overwhelm the limited resources available to the program. Even so, the office continues to expand its boundaries, from unmanned systems to outer space.

“Unmanned systems have enormous potential,” she said. “We’re already trying those in different Coast Guard operations, figuring out which systems to use on which missions. And [in November 2018 we launched] our first CubeSat. … There are areas of the globe where we don’t have much infrastructure or connectivity, such as the Arctic. But all different kinds of payloads are possible in the future.

During Arctic Technology Evaluation 2018, the AeroVironment Puma unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and a Coast Guard unmanned surface vessel were deployed together to test the feasibility of using multiple unmanned systems as a communications link over larger areas. Here, Patrick Ryan, a researcher in the Systems Branch at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, readies the UAS before launch.

U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Alexandra Swan

“But the real area of focus in the future will be data analytics, artificial intelligence [AI], and machine learning. We want to continue to grow our expertise in those areas. You can have a lot of different systems gathering a lot of data, but the long pole in the tent is how to analyze that data so you can make informed decisions. We have a number of projects in those areas.”

Change also is evolving the Coast Guard’s relationship with industry, the source of most of the fast-paced technological developments.

“We want to leverage innovative processes and authorities to engage industry, so we can have more rapid technology insertion and assessment. We’ve been asked to set up what they are calling a Blue Technology Center of Expertise, looking at innovative ways to engage with industry and capitalize on the pace of technology development and more rapid technology evaluations,” Chaves explained.

“For example, DHS and the other services are looking at what they call Other Transaction Authority [OTA], which allows the government to do R&D with nontraditional partners without going through the traditional contracting process. We don’t have Coast Guard OTA yet, so we go through DHS to exercise it, but we are hoping to have our own in the future.”

Among the evolving technologies the center of expertise will be working on are:

Miniaturization. “That is very important, especially with respect to sensors. The Coast Guard is trying to move to more mobility, and miniaturization plays a major role in that,” she said.

Increasingly fast computing speeds. “That gets back to data analytics, AI, and machine learning. At those greater speeds, we can do more predictive decision-making, enabling us to do a lot of work with on-scene handhelds.”

High-speed wireless networking. “That is something we look forward to. Our boarding teams don’t really have that at this time, so it’s the people on scene we want to get that to, along with the command centers.”

Potential cyber and electronic warfare attacks, both on the Coast Guard and against Coast Guardprotected assets. “Cyber is definitely an area we are involved in, supporting our Cyber Command with different projects. It applies everywhere – surface and sea and air assets, C4 [command, control, communications, and computers], etc.”

The RDC also has to keep a close eye on what the Coast Guard is likely to encounter from adversaries, such as terrorist groups and drug cartels, who are equally involved with acquiring and employing new technologies, from unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] to semi-submersibles – and are far better funded.

“We are involved in counter-UAV technology, for example, although it’s mostly the go-fast boats and small submarines they are using quite a bit today. Depending on what happens with the land border, there is a potential they could increase operations from a maritime perspective,” she acknowledged.

An unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) being tested. Unmanned systems are one area of research for the Coast Guard RDT&E program.

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The U.S. Coast Guard has 11 congressionally mandated missions, ranging from maritime safety and aids to navigation to ice breaking and law enforcement. All look to the RDC to improve their operations.

“We like to support all the Coast Guard’s missions, but our portfolio evolves based on the strategic priorities of the service as a whole. Our process ensures we put the most effort where it is needed for that particular year. Right now, that includes Arctic-related projects, such as communications, operations, and testing technologies up there,” Chaves said.

“DHS has an Office of University Programs and has basically set up and funded centers of expertise to do work on behalf of DHS components. We work with a number of those, including the Arctic Domain Awareness Center [ADAC], where we are involved in development of the work plans. Since ADAC was established, we’ve increased our Arctic-related efforts. We also work with the military labs and other government agencies on a lot of our projects. As a result, the R&D program is greater than what the R&D Center alone is doing.”

The Coast Guard also often piggybacks on what the Navy is doing, expanding the RDT&E effect on the service without significant new spending from its core annual funding.

“We’ve been fairly flatlined with our budget and definitely are not growing. As costs increase, the discretionary funding we have to spend on projects is decreasing. The Coast Guard has to stay within a top line on funding requests and has to prioritize how those funds are dispersed,” Chaves said. “Our funding has been stable, but for the future, with the pace of technology, I think there should be a greater emphasis on science and technology because of the potential it has to make us more efficient and effective.

“We do a lot of good things for the Coast Guard, but there is a potential for a greater impact.”

THE COAST GUARD RDT&E PROGRAM