It appears a loitering munition, particularly suitable for Coast Guard use, is entering the Navy’s inventory. Essentially these “suicide drones” are small, short range, cruise missile with the unique feature of having a man in the loop who can evaluate the progress of the mission, switch targets, or abort the mission at his discretion. We talked about these earlier.

Naval News reports that the Marines are buying the UVision Hero-120 for installation on their Light Armored Vehicle-Mortar (LAV-M), Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) and Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV). The latter could be of particular significance to the Coast Guard in that the installation will be on a boat, unmanned, but still a boat, and in fact a relatively small boat.

The Hero-120 is relatively small. It is shipped and stored in a cannister that is also its launcher.

Weight: 12.5 kg (27.6 pounds)
Warhead: 4.5 (10 pounds)
Range: 40 km (21.6 nautical miles)
Endurance (min): 60
Engine: Electrical

The Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV) is being built by Metal Shark and apparently uses the hull of the Navy’s new 40 foot patrol boat.

While I think these weapons have a place on most of the larger Coast Guard patrol craft, for the purpose of destroying small, fast, highly maneuverable craft that might be used in a terror attack, they really look like a good upgrade for the Webber class being deployed to Bahrain.