UAS Integration in U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue

This praxis investigates the integration of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) into United States Coast Guard (USCG) Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. The praxis describes current USCG SAR operations and the capabilities of search assets including MH-65 helicopters and the V-BAT UAS. Existing solutions for UAS integration do not meet all the challenges unique to the USCG’s maritime operating environment; thus, this praxis describes and applies a method for ConOps development using Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and a playbook-style ConOps, which is then applied to UAS integrated USCG SAR operations. STPA is a holistic analysis which uses the foundational concepts of operational defense-in-depth to identify safety requirements early in design. The STPA performed on UAS integrated USCG SAR operations identified 12 system constraints, 14 controller constraints, and 25 requirements for the ConOps design. Using a ConOps inspired by sports playbooks, plays are defined in terms of goals, tasks, and actions, facilitating delegation, predictability, flexibility, and understanding among multiple agents. These structured plays are designed specifically to model the work being done in USCG SAR operations while supporting STPA, specifically through a set of universal tasks which must be executed, and detailed actions that may vary to accomplish the tasks depending on context. UAS integrated USCG SAR plays were defined as the tasks and actions needed to initiate and oversee operations, search, rescue, and conclude operations while ensuring appropriate communication and coordination between helicopters and UAS. Detailed search plays (solo, vertically separated, and horizontally separated) maintain separation between assets. The Work Models that Compute (WMC) framework simulated plays to verify their performance and to identify the conditions most appropriate for different plays. Metrics include the amount of area searched overall and per hour, search overlap, the total time spent searching, and separation of the assets during searches. In some conditions, UAS integration significantly improves performance without increasing risk, but in other conditions UAS integration needs to be carefully coordinated and may slow down SAR. In summary, this praxis contributes a method for safety-centric ConOps design, and applies it to develop a UAS integrated USCG SAR ConOps. The models it developed can be further refined to explore this ConOps in greater detail and to examine the application of other technologies. The method provides a replicable template for integrating emerging technologies into safety-critical operations.