§ 319 — Unmanned System Program And Autonomous Control And Computer Vision Technology Project

(a) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall establish, under the control of the Commandant, an unmanned system program for the use by the Coast Guard of land-based, cutter-based, and aircraft-based unmanned systems for the purpose of increasing effectiveness and efficiency of mission execution. (1) The Commandant shall conduct a project to retrofit 2 or more existing Coast Guard small boats deployed at operational units with— (A) commercially available autonomous control and computer vision technology; and (B) such sensors and methods of communication as are necessary to control, and technology to assist in conducting, search and rescue, surveillance, and interdiction missions. (2) As part of the project required under paragraph (1), the Commandant shall collect and evaluate field-collected operational data from the retrofit described in such paragraph to inform future requirements. (3) Not later than 180 days after the date on which the project required under paragraph (1) is completed, the Commandant shall provide to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a briefing on the project that includes an evaluation of the data collected from the project. (c) In this section, the term “unmanned system” means— (1) an unmanned aircraft system (as such term is defined in section 44801 of title 49); (2) an unmanned marine surface system; and (3) an unmanned marine subsurface system.