PH Coast Guard receives uncrewed surface vessel, first in SEA

An uncrewed surface vessel (USV) from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Maritime Crime Program is on display at the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters in Port Area, Manila on Friday, August 30, 2024. (PHOTO FROM THE PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) became the first maritime security organization in Southeast Asia to have an uncrewed surface vessel (USV), making it more equipped to collect data from the skies and the sea. 

This breakthrough comes after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Maritime Crime Program (GMCP) turned over a USV to the PCG.

A turnover ceremony was supposed to be held at PCG headquarters in Manila on Friday, but it was canceled due to a conflict of schedule.

The USV is now at the PCG headquarters.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter),  the UNODC-GMCP on Thursday said they conducted a harbor acceptance test and sea acceptance trial of the USV at Subic, Zambales.

The UNODC-GMCP also noted that the Philippines received “the first-ever unmanned surface vessel for a coast guard agency in Southeast Asia.”

USVs are made to roam the ocean’s surface to collect oceanographic and atmospheric data, according to the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

According to Noaa, USVs could be programmed or controlled by operators at sea to conduct pre-planned missions.