Coast Guard Launches RAS PEO to Unify Uncrewed Systems

The U.S. Coast Guard is reshaping its approach to maritime operations with the establishment of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Program Executive Office, officials said Tuesday at Sea-Air-Space in National Harbor, Maryland.

“The establishment of the RAS PEO is more than an organizational change; it’s a deliberate strategic move and marks a new era of Coast Guard operations,” said Capt. Roberto Herrera, portfolio manager for surface and underwater assets within the RAS PEO.

Breaking Down Silos

Before RAS PEO, the Coast Guard’s management of unmanned technology was highly decentralized, Herrera said. The new model replaces older, siloed structures that separated the acquisition and sustainment communities into a unified system. This structure categorizes domains into surface, air, space and shore, closely mirroring the Navy’s approach to organization. Herrera said the shift addresses decades of fragmented oversight.

“For decades, unmanned and autonomous systems were managed across multiple offices, typically in little pet projects, and this is the Coast Guard’s deliberate effort to bring all of that under one vision,” he said. “The Coast Guard is not just experimenting robotic and autonomous systems. We’re now about institutionalizing it.”

Accelerating Capability Through Innovative Acquisition

Robotic systems require acquisition cycles that move significantly faster than traditional military procurement to keep up with the speed of innovation, Herrera said. The RAS PEO is actively pursuing alternative contracting methods like other transaction authorities to accelerate the development and fielding of uncrewed tech, he said

“We’re pursuing a lot of the, I would say, non-[Federal Acquisition Regulation]-type activities, like commercial solution opportunities and other transaction authorities,” Herrera said. “We’re trying to get capability out there as quickly as we can, iterate with operators, get that feedback as soon as we can and then try to incorporate that into future program … decisions.”

Lt. Cdr. Andrew Denning, deputy program manager for the Coast Guard’s long-range UAS program, reinforced the need for speed and non-traditional acquisition pathways.

“They’re going to allow us to prototype faster leverage commercial technology and field capability on timelines that we haven’t been able to do in traditional acquisitions,” Denning said.

Forging Industry Partnerships

Uncrewed vehicle innovation is currently driven by private industry and commercial firms rather than the government, officials said. Collaboration with the defense industrial base can drive forward UAS solutions, Denning said.

“We are here to partner with industry to solve those complex operational problems,” Denning said. “We understand that industry is out here fixing problems before we even have identified them as requirements.”

This proactive engagement is central to the PEO’s overarching mandate of evaluating emerging technologies rapidly without sacrificing safety or interoperability, Denning said.

“Our job up here is to engage early, evaluate quickly and integrate responsibly, and that’s why our PEO exists: to manage that balance, moving at speed while maintaining discipline, interoperability and trust with our organization and with our external partners, and partnership with the industry and academia are critical to that,” Denning added.