The Navy is poised to begin operational testing of its new MQ-8C Fire Scout UAS, a vertical take-off-and landing drone engineered for maritime missions and slated to deploy aboard the services’ Littoral Combat Ship by 2018, service officials told.The MQ-8C is a larger, upgraded version of the currently existing MQ-8B Fire Scout, a vertical take-off– and landing unmanned system which deployed to the Pacific theater aboard the USS Fort Worth.
The Navy has been conducting initial testing with two test MQ-8C aircraft as a step toward eventually acquiring up to 40 MQ-8Cs, said Capt. Jeff Dodge, program manager, Multi-mission Technical Unmanned Air System Office.
Seventeen of the new drones are already on order, he added.
The MQ-8C air vehicle upgrade will provide longer endurance, range and greater payload capability than the existing smaller MQ-8B.
The MQ-8C Fire Scout is a fully autonomous, fourblade, single-engine unmanned helicopter.
'It will carry an array of reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition (RSTA) sensors to support warfighters' demands for enhanced situational awareness,' the firm said.
After more than a year of land-based testing at Point Mugu, California, the MQ-8C Fire Scout has now made 22 takeoffs and 22 precision landings while being controlled from the ship's ground control station.
'The MQ-8C Fire Scout's flights from the USS Dunham represent a significant Navy milestone,' said said Capt. Jeff Dodge, Fire Scout program manager at Naval Air Systems Command.
'This is the first sea-based flight of the MQ-8C and the first time an unmanned helicopter has operated from a destroyer.
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