Northrop Grumman and the US Navy have successfully demonstrated endurance and fleet operating capabilities with the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter.
On a planned 10+ hour flight and range out to 150 nautical miles flight from Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, the MQ-8C Fire Scout achieved 11 hours with over an hour of fuel in reserve.
The long range, long endurance flight was part of a series of capability based tests used by the Navy to validate their concept of operations and previously tested performance parameters.
"We can better understand the capability of the system and look at crew tasks and interactions in a controlled environment. This will allow us to adjust operational procedures to maximize the system's effectiveness," CAPT Jeff Dodge, program manager, Fire Scout, Naval Air Systems Command said.
"The addition of Fire Scout greatly expands the ship’s aviation capabilities and endurance, and provides a dedicated asset for maritime domain awareness.”
This is a new flight record set for the MQ-8 Fire Scout; a system designed to provide persistent reconnaissance, situational awareness, and precision targeting support for ground, air and sea forces.
"With adjustments, our production aircraft will have 12 hours of total endurance on a standard day," George Vardoulakis, vice president, medium range tactical systems, Northrop Grumman said.
Thus far, the MQ-8C Fire Scout has accumulated over 513 flight hours and flown 353 sorties.
A Fire Scout has been operating with the US 7th Fleet onboard Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Fort Worth.
“This is the first time that Fire Scout is operating in 7th Fleet onboard Fort Worth and also the first time that Fire Scout and the MH-60R helicopter have deployed together onboard an LCS," CMDR Christopher Brown, Fort Worth’s commanding officer wrote in an email to USNI News.
"The addition of Fire Scout greatly expands the ship’s aviation capabilities and endurance, and provides a dedicated asset for maritime domain awareness,” he wrote.
CMDR Brown said that during CARAT Singapore, Fire Scout was used to provide over-the-horizon imagery and video of the opposing surface action group and stream the video back to Fort Worth.
"This capability provided Fort Worth a detailed visual of the opposing ships that a radar picture alone can’t provide. Additionally, the MQ-8B provides longer on-station times and is less counter-detectable than the MH-60R.”
Brown said the use of UAVs – both the Fire Scout and the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Scan Eagle – was the highlight of CARAT Singapore, “demonstrating the value of unmanned platforms in providing an enhanced maritime domain awareness picture for the afloat task group.”