Northrop
Grumman Corporation will build five additional U.S. Navy MQ-8C Fire
Scout unmanned helicopters, which allow ship commanders to extend their
intelligence-gathering capabilities far beyond the horizon. Final assembly
of the aircraft will take place at the company's Unmanned Systems Center
in Moss Point, Miss. The MQ-8C is based on a larger helicopter airframe
that provides greater range, endurance and payload capacity over the
currently fielded MQ-8B Fire Scout variant. |
"Land-based
flight tests of the system are progressing well and we're working with
the Navy to conduct our first ship-based flights this summer,"
said George Vardoulakis, vice president, medium range tactical systems,
Northrop Grumman. "We expect the MQ-8C Fire Scout will be ready
for operations by year end."
The MQ-8C can remain on station for more than eight hours and supporting
long-duration missions, thus requiring less aircraft to sustain operations.
A total of 19 aircraft are under contract with the Navy.
Fire Scout uses on-board sensors to capture full-motion video, identify
targets and distribute information in real time to various users. This
allows ship-based commanders to maintain awareness of a specified area
or keep an eye on a target of interest for long periods of time. |
