MQ-8C completes Operational Assessment

The US Navy has successfully completed land-based operational assessment (OA) of the MQ-8C Fire Scout, Northrop Grumman announced on 1 December. 

The OA was conducted at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, in November by the navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-1.

During the three week OA flight test period, Fire Scout collected real time data points to validate system performance parameters and assess risk to future operational testing. 

According to Northrop Grumman all aircraft systems successfully met VX-1 flight requirements. MQ-8C sensors and systems were tested at different altitudes and ranges to validate operational effectiveness. Integration of an improved ice detector system was also validated with an alert to the test team of icing during a flight. This system allowed for necessary altitude corrections by descending the helicopter until the indication cleared so that the mission could resume its target detection runs.

Capt Jeff Dodge, Fire Scout program manager, Naval Air Systems Command, said: ‘MQ-8C represents a significant capability improvement to the fleet. Testing has shown the system is meeting or exceeding our goals and the completion of this test event represents a major step on the road to fleet introduction.’

Leslie Smith, fire scout program director, Northrop Grumman, added: ‘The completion of land-based OA is once again validation of the incredible performance the Fire Scout system is capable of. As demonstrated in the test, Fire Scout's multi-INT capability and endurance, coupled with outstanding reliability are changing the way intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems are measured; we have significantly raised the bar.’

The MQ-8C programme is now preparing for milestone C in 2016.

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MQ-8C Fire Scout