Research and Development Center

Located in the southern side of Connecticut, R & D Center is one of the few military facilities operated by the United States Coast Guard in this state. It is the only facility of its kind in this armed force. It is responsible for taking all the research studies, evaluation, test and development of various systems and equipments to be implemented and adopted by the US Coast Guard. There are no other similar facilities in the country, hence the importance of this center. It is one of the few installations that are constantly upgraded and updated with the latest technologies on the market.

R & D Center is a research and development center. In order to fulfill its comprehensive mission, it operates multiple divisions, teams and units. Supporting all the US Coast Guard units and stations is a real challenge, since there are plenty of them. Therefore, the center operates in a tight collaboration with these divisions and a few other agencies for a good coordination. Other than that, it also operates a detachment – Fire and Safety Test – to evaluate its latest work. The detachment conducts a wide variety of testing studies, including ship fire tests. It is one of the most advanced testing sites in the United States of America.

Mission

R & D Center provides effective solutions for all the operations the US Coast Guard involves in. The experts operating this center maintain an impressive amalgam of technologies and projects that deal with all the operations, no matter how impressive or insignificant they are. Believe it or not, it is the one and only center that performs such studies and research operations to support the missions. There are no other similar facilities in the United States of America. The research studies cover absolutely any objective of the armed forces. Among the most important ones, you can count detention of drug smugglers, issues with the oil and hazardous spills, the safety of the maritime environment or the commercial performance. These are some of the basic acts that constantly require improvements.

The United States Coast Guard maintains the maritime safety, enforces the law whenever the situation arises and protects the life by patrolling and search and rescue (SAR) operations. All these missions are adapted for national defense purposes.

Programs

There are six general programs that support the US Coast Guard efforts to deal with its mission. The surface one maintains the defensive or offensive purposes of all the registered ships and vessels, as well as the ports and stations under the US Coast Guard. On the other hand, the air program has a similar purpose, except for the fact its array of activities is in the air. Another very important program at R & D Center is C4ISR, which operates the communications, the sensor based systems or the cyber field. There are three other programs, counting the evaluation, the analysis and the environment. R & D Center is also responsible for a few other projects, but they are not as important.