The Navy has ordered six of the latest Fire Scout unmanned helicopters that feature a larger airframe than those already deployed with the fleet are intended to fly and remain on station longer for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $71 million contract modification this week for the six of the MQ-8C aircraft. It was a follow-on to a contract issued in April for two developmental MQ-8Cs and for six production versions (Defense Daily, April 25, 2012).
The MQ-8C is based on the 407 airframe built by Textron [TXT] subsidiary Bell Helicopter, and will be capable of 15 hours of flight time, including eight on station–twice that offered by the smaller MQ-8Bs that have been deployed on naval vessels and in Afghanistan for ISR missions.
Northrop Grumman and Bell internally funded the development of the new Fire Scout as a Fire-X demonstrator, which had been flying at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., since December 2008. The MQ-8C will utilize the same avionics as its predecessor and will be capable of carrying a variety of payloads, Northrop Grumman has said.
The first MQ-8C is scheduled to deploy with the Navy in 2014. The Navy plans to purchase a total of 30 MQ-8Cs, according to Northrop Grumman.