Northrop To Test-fly Army Fire Scout Soon
By Bettina H. Chavanne
Northrop Grumman may be hoping to convince the U.S. Army to field its Fire Scout vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle earlier than scheduled by test-flying the unmanned helicopter in Yuma, Ariz., in June.
The Fire Scout, called an XM157 Class IV UAV by the Army, is part of the land service’s embattled Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. The Army does not plan to test fly the XM157 until 2011 under the official FCS timeline. But Northrop Grumman, whose Fire Scout is already being test-flown for the Navy, is taking its company-owned aircraft, called the White Tail, to Yuma next month for tests of its own.
“We wanted to demonstrate that we have the ability to operate in that [Army One ground control system] architecture,” said Mike Howell, Northrop Grumman’s director of business development for Fire Scout. The company will fly the aircraft using its own “universal” ground control station, which Howell said emulates the Army One system and incorporates some principles from the Navy’s Tactical Control System, or TCS.
For now, it’s a Raytheon system driving the Fire Scout in ship tests, but Northrop is keeping its eye out for opportunities. Former Pentagon acquisitions chief John Young advocated for more commonality among ground control systems, and he issued an acquisition decision memorandum in February directing the services to move in that direction (Aerospace DAILY, March 10).
The Army’s XM157 will have an ASTAMIDS payload, a “wholly unique” feature, according to Charles Catterall, the Army’s lead engineer for the Class IV vehicle. ASTAMIDS, or Airborne Standoff Minefield Detection System, will be paired with a STARLite search and rescue sensor in a dual-payload configuration. “No other system, manned or unmanned, has been designated to use [the ASTAMIDS] payload,” Caterrall said.
Meanwhile, the Navy is now focusing its MQ-8B Fire Scout program on preparing for ship-based deployment this fall to support counternarcotics efforts, likely in the Caribbean area, after conducting a series of successful landing tests with the unmanned rotorcraft this spring on the USS McInerney (FFG-8).
The tests, which wrapped up April 28, included four flights from the frigate over three days, says Capt. Tim Dunigan, the Navy’s Fire Scout program director. “The aircraft is doing everything we want it to do,” he said.
The tests took place off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla. A series of flight-tests in the Chesapeake Bay in February allowed the 3,150-pound gross-takeoff-weight aircraft to hover close to the ship and execute approaches. Winds and bad weather exceeded the allowance for landing at that time.
The McInerney tests are taking place in advance of more trials slated for the Fire Scout’s future host platform, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Fire Scout is expected to begin shipboard tests on the LCS-1, the Freedom, made by Lockheed Martin/Marinette Marine, by the second quarter of 2010, Dunigan said.
A schedule is not yet firm for tests on the first General Dynamics LCS, Dunigan said.
Photo: Northrop Grumman
