House subcommittee presses Coast Guard on plans for unmanned vessels, UAS funding and cyber defenses

Rear Admiral David C. Barata, the Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for operations policy and assistant commandant for intelligence, told a House subcommittee that recent legislation and Force Design 2028 have accelerated the service’s adoption of unmanned and autonomous systems and that the service is updating organization and procurement plans to match that momentum.

“The key part is the support we’ve gotten with the reconciliation funds,” Barata said, describing a funding package the service has set aside for unmanned systems. He said roughly $350 million from reconciliation was identified for related efforts, with about $266 million for long‑range unmanned aircraft systems and $75 million for surface unmanned systems. Barata told the committee the Coast Guard has used about $11 million so far on unit‑level remote vehicles, small UAS and ground robots and expects to execute the larger procurements in the next six to 12 months.

Barata said the service created a Robotics and Autonomous Systems program executive office (RAS PEO) that will update the Coast Guard’s unmanned systems strategy, consolidate acquisition and training responsibilities, and lead procurement. “The RAS PEO will be solely responsible for updating that strategy and executing those funds,” he said.

A Government Accountability Office witness said the Coast Guard has primarily relied on existing authorities and local captain‑of‑the‑port approvals to manage testing so far. “At the time of our report in August 2024, just a handful of requests had been made,” the GAO witness said. Since then, the GAO was told the Coast Guard had received 48 such testing requests and managed operations at the local level in those cases. The GAO witness and committee members cautioned that regulations written with the assumption of a crewed vessel may not address future autonomous operations.

Heidi C. Perry, who chaired the National Academy of Sciences study on unmanned systems, told the subcommittee the NAS recommended a high‑level unmanned system strategy, a senior advocate for unmanned systems, a program office, broadened experimentation and an internal funding study. “These recommendations were intended to help the Coast Guard proceed more aggressively, albeit strategically and deliberately, in leveraging autonomous advancements,” Perry said.

Lawmakers repeatedly asked how the Coast Guard will balance delivering new capabilities to operators with cybersecurity and safety risks. Rear Admiral James Toma, commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command, said the service is expanding its cyber workforce and partnering closely with federal partners and industry. He highlighted recent efforts to train cyber mission specialists and to deploy cyber protection teams that conduct threat hunts and vulnerability assessments for ports and maritime infrastructure.

Members asked about international coordination; witnesses noted Coast Guard engagement at the International Maritime Organization, which is developing an international non‑mandatory code for autonomous surface ships with a target finalization in 2026. Witnesses also described a Coast Guard at‑sea recovery pilot program that has conducted nearly 120 launches and recoveries and that the program’s lessons are informing domestic governance.

The subcommittee requested follow‑up information and asked several technical questions for the record, including about statutory authorities that could give the Coast Guard additional flexibility and the appropriate length and design of pilot programs. The chair closed the hearing and left the record open for supplemental materials for 15 days.

The subcommittee did not take any binding votes during the hearing; members said they expect more briefings and follow‑up as procurement and regulatory work progress.