MQ-8B Fire Scout

With additional fuel capacity, the MQ-8B can stay on station for six hours at 110 miles (176 km) from launch site. The Navy plans to use Fire Scout on board the Littoral Combat Ship, where sailors will operate both manned and unmanned helicopters to support operational requirements.

FireScout conducted a series of flight tests that culminated in two successful launches of a 2.75-inch Hydra-class rocket from the Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV). Fire Scout is programmed to become operational in fiscal year '09 and deploy aboard the littoral combat ship. The Fire Scout was re-designated MQ-8B, which reflects the aerial vehicle's multi-mission functionality. The Navy is acquiring the MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV to fulfill the service’s requirement for a tactical UAV capable of operating in the shipboard environment.

On May 30, 2007 The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) $13.6 million for the procurement of long lead items, in support of the low-rate initial production of MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV). "The Fire Scout program is on track to conduct payload flights this fall and enter initial operational evaluation and then achieve initial operational capability in 2008 as planned," said CDR Rob Murphy, Navy VTUAV program manager. The Fire Scout's operational requirements include real-time video imagery collection, intelligence gathering, communications-relay capability, precision targeting and battle damage assessment from the Littoral Combat Ship. The Navy has nine Fire Scouts currently on contract with Northrop Grumman. The first was delivered in November to Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The successful series of first flights was completed just weeks later. All nine are expected to be delivered by the end of 2008.

FireScout Industry Team

System design work on the Fire Scout is performed at the Integrated Systems Unmanned Systems Development Center in San Diego, Calif. The Fire Scout is assembled at the Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss. The VTUAV is based on a commercial-off-the-shelf Schweizer 333 manned helicopter manufactured in Horseheads, N.Y. The baseline design has proven a highly reliable and effective platform with extensive operating history.

With Northrop Grumman as prime contractor, the MQ-8B Fire Scout industry team also includes Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, the platform's designer and airframe manufacturer and Rolls-Royce Corporation, delivering the engine.

Avionics providers include Rockwell Collins supplying avionics, GE Fanuc produces produced the vehicle management computer, Kearfott Inc. supplies the guidance and navigation systems and Cubic Defense Applications delivering the communications systems. The BriteStar II EO payload is supplied by FLIR Systems.

Ship integration is performed by Lockheed Martin Corporation, which integrated the unmanned common automatic recovery system from Sierra Nevada Corporation. Raytheon Company supplied the tactical control system.