Northrop Grumman Corp. will build five long-range unmanned helicopters for operation from destroyers and other surface warships under terms of a $43.8 million U.S. Navy contract announced last week.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems segment in San Diego to build five MQ-8C Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (VTUAV), which are based on the manned Bell 407 helicopter from Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.
The award is for a $43,781,216 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-12-C-0059) for the production and delivery of five MQ-8 Firescout vertical take-off and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (VTUAV) and one ground control station in support of the VTUAV endurance upgrade rapid deployment capability effort.
Work will be performed in Dallas, Texas (32 percent); Ozark, Ala. (27 percent); Rancho Bernardo, Calif. (25 percent); Moss Point, Miss. (15 percent); and Point Mugu, Calif. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2015. Fiscal 2013 and 2014 aircraft procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $43,781,216 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
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.
Photo: MQ-8C Fire Scout at Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, California, where flight testing of the system is conducted – Alan Radecki/Northrop Grumman
Source: Department of Defense; Press Release