Fri, Jun 01, 2007
VTOL Aircraft First Unmanned Navy System To Achieve
Milestone
The US Department of Defense announced this week Northrop
Grumman's MQ-8B Fire Scout VTOL-capable Tactical Unmanned Air
Vehicle (VTUAV) has reached Milestone C, signifying the beginning
of its low-rate initial production phase. The Fire Scout is the
first unmanned aircraft system (UAS) within the US Navy, and the
third UAS of all US military branches, to meet Milestone C in the
Defense Department acquisition process.
"This is a significant step for the Fire Scout program and for
unmanned systems overall," said Dyke Weatherington, Deputy of
Unmanned Aircraft Systems Planning Task Force for the Office of the
Secretary of Defense. "The military and contractor program offices
have been diligent about meeting and exceeding requirements set
forth for the new capabilities these systems offer the warfighter,
including endurance, range and payload weight."
"With Milestone C complete, 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.
"At this time, we are supporting the Fire Scout system from our
Unmanned Systems office located in Hollywood, MD to support flight
test as well as the engineering and logistics needs of the Navy's
VTUAV program," added Gene Fraser, vice president of Northrop
Grumman's Unmanned Systems. "As the program grows, the number of
Northrop Grumman support personnel will grow as well."
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