Jane Edwards
The U.S. Navy transitioned the Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8C Fire Scout ship-based unmanned helicopter to the operational deployment phase in mid-December.
MQ-8C Fire Scout provided the service with improved intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capabilities when fielded with the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22, Detachment 5 aboard the USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) Freedom-class littoral combat ship, Northrop said Monday.
“The transition from the MQ-8B to the MQ-8C Fire Scout has brought improved sensors and more than doubles the on-station endurance. Advances in Fire Scout’s capabilities further our successful integration of unmanned platforms at sea and the Navy and Marine Corps unmanned campaign plan,” said Capt. Eric Soderberg.
MQ-8C Fire Scout is based on the Bell 407 helicopter’s design and can operate for a duration of at least 10 hours. The unmanned helicopter has a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles and comes with a Leonardo AN/ZPY-8 (Osprey) radar that could help operators detect and track targets in extreme weather conditions and at long ranges.
Lance Eischeid, director of Northrop’s Fire Scout program, said the partnership with the Navy has helped the company develop multimission autonomous capabilities for Fire Scout to provide the joint force with improved situational awareness.
MQ-8C Fire Scout, which was produced in Alabama and Mississippi, reached initial operational capability status in June 2019 and is set to replace the MQ-8B variant in future deployments.
