MQ-8C Fire Scout Demonstrates Expeditionary Capability

Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout is an unmanned helicopter based on Bell’s 407—itself a derivative of the hugely successful 206L-4 LongRanger. The autonomous vehicle provides reconnaissance, situational awareness, aerial fire support, and precision targeting support for the ground, air, and sea forces of its primary user, the U.S. Navy.

Recently, the MQ-8C supported an Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) exercise off the California coast, during which the formidable UAV demonstrated its ability to transition from ship-to-shore in a maritime environment.

EABO is a form of expeditionary warfare predicated upon the effective employment of mobile, low-signature, operationally relevant, and relatively easy to maintain and sustain naval expeditionary forces from a series of austere, temporary locations within a contested or potentially contested maritime area.

Dubbed Resolute Hunter, the joint coalition and large force EABO exercise in which the MQ-8C Fire Scout participated saw the vehicle log a total of 23 flight-hours and prove its expeditionary usefulness from both land and a number of ship classes.

During the exercise, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 successfully launched an MQ-8C Fire Scout from Point Mugu and completed a hand-off to the detachment’s Portable Mission Control Station (MCS-P) at San Clemente Island. The MQ-8C’s portable ground control station allows Fire Scout to be operated from locales as disparate as austere terrestrial environs, frontline helipads, and ship-decks.

Fire Scout program manager Captain Dennis Monagle remarked: “Fire Scout is the Navy’s only unmanned helicopter with the ability to deploy from a ship or land with ISR&T [Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting] at the extended range required for future warfighting. The system is vital in expeditionary use for situational awareness and critical decision-making.”

Fire Scout is currently deployed aboard USS Jackson (LCS-6) in the Indo-Pacific region. The Navy plans to continue deployments aboard its littoral combat ships (LCS) with future deployments planned on Constellation-class guided-missile frigates and potential operations from shore sites under the EABO concept.

FMI: www.navy.mil