Northrop Grumman Conducts Fire Scout Flight Tests for U.S. Navy Ships





By Priya Potapragada



The Northrop Grumman MQ-Fire Scout unmanned helicopter will go through flight tests to demonstrate its ability to fly safely in the highly electromagnetic environment aboard U.S. Navy ships.



MQ-8C Fire Scout is fitted with Faraday cages that protect sensitive electronic equipment on the vehicle from signal interference during operations. It can fly almost twice as long and carry three times more intelligence-gathering sensor payloads than the previous model, the MQ-8B.

 

"All Navy aircraft must go through electromagnetic interference testing to ensure they can operate safely in the ship environment," said Capt. Patrick Smith, Fire Scout program manager at Naval Air Systems Command. "We're confident that the design of the Faraday cages and other engineering work done on the MQ-8C Fire Scout will pass these tests."



The MQ-8C Fire Scout has flown 102 flights, and after the flight tests, it will conduct a ship-based demonstration.