Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout
A new unmanned helicopter could revolutionize the way special operations forces working in hard-to-reach environments are resupplied with beans, bullets, and band aids. But while Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout might someday serve in a close air support role and offer the Navy a platform for destroying enemy submarines and surface vessels, that type of capability is still a long way off. In fact, Fire Scout is only one of many new UAV programs that are keeping defense contractors busy and tempting the military with the prospect of war without (friendly) casualties. To be fair, the Fire Scout is one of the more interesting UAVs on display in Paris–unlike many of its competitors, it is capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Still, it’s unclear that this unmanned helicopter would offer the U.S. military a capability not already available. According to Northrop, the Fire Scout is already in late stage development for the U.S. Army and Navy and is generating interest in 13 foreign markets. The Fire Scout’s specs seem impressive: 125+ knot airspeed, a flight ceiling of 20,000 feet, and a 600 lb maximum payload. But Lockheed Martin’s manned/unmanned K-MAX helicopter, although slightly slower, can carry 6,000 lbs at sea level and 5,000 lbs at 9,500 feet, with a ceiling of 29,000 feet. Similarly, some of the Fire Scout’s gizmos and gadgets–like a harpoon on its underbelly that anchors it to the flight deck and its modular payload system–don’t seem to offer much in the way of new capability. But there are a lot of skeptics out there, including WWS pal Christian Lowe, who wrote last month that,
