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DOT&E Reports MQ-8C Fire Scout Not Operationally Effective

Wednesday, February 5th, 2020

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DOT&E Reports MQ-8C Fire Scout Not Operationally Effective

Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout takes off for its first flight out of Trent Lott International Airport in Moss Point, Miss. in 2018. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)

The Defense Department’s top weapons tester said the Navy’s MQ-8C Fire Scout is “not operationally effective, not operationally suitable, and not cyber survivable” and the service established a “Tiger Team” to work on deficiencies. In its annual report on major weapons systems, the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) said while the MQ-8C Endurance Baseline variant has demonstrated an endurance improvement over the MQ-8B model it criticized the aircraft as not operationally effective. The M8-8C is a helicopter-based unmanned system…

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