US Navy’s MQ-8C Fire Scout Readied for Shipside Flight Testing

The latest version of Navy’s Fire Scout reconnaissance drone is being readied for actual takeoff and landing from the deck of a Navy ship at sea, the company announced following recent test takeoffs and landings using a sloped platform at Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, California.

“The … tests are designed to be as real as it gets to actually operating on a Navy ship,” Capt. Patrick Smith, Fire Scout program manager at Naval Air Systems Command, said in a statement. “The autonomous MQ-8C Fire Scout system is able to precisely track and understand the roll and pitch of the surface which resembles at-sea conditions.”

The same test platform was used previously to test the MQ-8B Fire Scout for ship-based operations. That unmanned aviation system began at-sea testing earlier this year. Northrop Grumman, the Navy’s prime contractor on the MQ-8, said initial ship-based flights of the C-model will take place before year’s end.

The MQ-8C model has flown 219 flights and 287 hours since its first flight nearly one year ago, on Oct. 31.

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