Starting a fire

Lineage

The original RQ-8A Fire Scout was developed from the civil Schweizer Aircraft 330SP light helicopter, and was pitched by a teaming of Ryan-Teledyne (now part ofNorthrop Grumman) and Schweizer (now part of Sikorsky) for a US Navy vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) requirement to replace the more conventional first generation RQ-2 Pioneer UAV in the late 1990s.

The requirement called for an air vehicle with a payload of 90kg at a range of 200km or with a threehour endurance, up to an altitude of 20,000ft. While the RQ-8A retained the 330’s Rolls-Royce 250-C20 turbine, dynamic components and basic dimensions, it featured a new fuselage and fuel system, sensors, and UAS-specific flight control and navigation systems.

The RQ-8A first flew in January 2000, but the Navy requirement was cancelled soon after. After cancellation, company-funded development was switched to a morecapable version, the R/MQ-8B which was derived from the more powerful Schweizer 333 helicopter and which caught the eye of the US Army. A contract for seven evaluation RQ- 4Bs was awarded in late 2003, and in 2006 the designation was changed to MQ-8B to better recognise the Fire Scout’s multi-mission capabilities.

The MQ-8B differed from the A model in having a four-blade main rotor, an increased MTOW of 1,430kg, twice the mission radius or endurance, and a payload capacity of up to 320kg for short-range or short-endurance missions. Stub wings were fitted to the cab to aid lift and to provide payload mounting points, including for possible weapons carriage including Hellfire or Viper Strike anti-armour missiles, and later, podded weapons such as the new Advanced Precision Kill

It’s a crawl-walk-run process, and we’re not far off walking. CMDR ROYALS

Weapon System (APKWS) 70mm rocket.

Sensors fitted to the MQ-8B included various combinations of an EO/IR turret, a tactical synthetic aperture radar with moving target indicator (TSAR/MTI), a multi-spectral sensor, a signals intelligence module, a target acquisition minefield detection system (ASTAMIDS), and the tactical common data link (TCDL).

The US Navy regained interest in the program in 2006 and ordered eight MQ-8Bs for its own evaluation. Flight test airframe production started in April 2006 at Northrop Grumman’s Moss Point Mississippi facility, and first flight took place at NAS Patuxent (Pax) River in December that year.

The Navy saw the Fire Scout as an adjunct to its manned helicopters embarked aboard LCS, FFG, DDG and CG class vessels, and planned to deploy these unmanned systems alongside its SH-60 Seahawk and MH-60S Sierra Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) detachments. The concept of operations envisaged the Fire Scout with its advanced sensor fit and datalinks could do much of the more mundane intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and some light vertical replenishment (VERTREP) work, while the manned aircraft would be called in for rescues, to prosecute targets, or for heavier lifting. In the meantime, the US Army ended its requirement for the Fire Scout in 2010 after deeming the existing fixed-wing RQ-7 Shadow could fulfil most of the Fire Scout’s ISR mission.

Initial deployments of the MQ‑8B were in 2009/10 aboard the FFG frigates USS McInerny on a customs and border security cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and the USS Halyburton in the Middle East region. Each vessel – essentially the same as the RAN’s Adelaide class FFGs – embarked one Seahawk and two Fire Scouts for their deployments, with the unmanned aircraft accounting for roughly half the total number of hours flown.

Fire-X While the MQ-8B was proving the concept, Northrop Grumman was developing the next version of the Fire Scout in response to the US Navy’s Medium-Range Maritime Unmanned Aircraft System (MRMUAS) requirement.

Dubbed Fire-X, the company-funded development mated the Fire Scout’s systems architecture to a much larger airframe based on the civil Bell 407 helicopter. Launched in February 2010, Fire-X promised a low-risk solution to the MRMUAS requirement, matching the proven Fire Scout systems with the commercially derived 407 airframe and drivetrain, of which there were thousands in operation and a global supply chain already established worldwide.

First flight of the Fire-X occurred just 11 months after development began, in December 2010, and the brief initial flight demonstrated the aircraft’s ability to hover and obey basic commands. Further test flights confirmed the Fire-X’s reliability, payload capacity, and the integration of some of its sensors.

While the MRMUAS program was cancelled in 2012, development of the Fire-X continued, and the US Navy now has 14 aircraft under contract, and a firm requirement in the program of record for 28. Further, following October’s first flight, Navy officials stated that there is a notional unfunded requirement for between 96 and 125 systems. In order to better identify the Fire-X as a development of two proven systems, it was re-designated as the MQ-8C Fire Scout in late 2012.

In the meantime, the test program will ramp up at Point Mugu using two airframes – at theof writing in mid-December there had been 20 test flights successfully completed for a total of 26 flight hours. Northrop Grumman’s director of international business development unmanned systems, Capt Mike Fuqua (ret) told Australian Aviation that the ability to leverage off the proven systems of the MQ-8B and the fully certified Bell 407 means the program expects to realise some “development efficiency”, and that the first deployment of the system is currently scheduled for late 2014, barely 12 months after first flight.

“The US Navy saw the need for an increase in capability back in 2008, so we worked together to move towards a larger aircraft,” Fuqua said. The MQ-8C can carry a bigger and more diverse payload, which means it can accomplish more missions. Plus the increase in endurance is a big benefit and will have a dramatic effect on a ship at sea. ” Apart from the sensors already proven on the MQ-8B, Fuqua added that the Fire Scout’s open and modular architecture means new and emerging sensors can be rapidly integrated as required. One such possibility is a nascent effort to accommodate a 360 degree maritime radar which he says would “see the aircraft’s capability significantly enhanced. ”

CONOPS

The US Navy plans to use the Fire Scout in a range of operational roles, including mine warfare, anti-submarine, anti-surface, and logistics missions.

In a mine warfare scenario, the Fire Scout’s sensors will form part of a layered defence, allowing it to locate mines in shallow waters and for MH‑60S mine clearance helicopters to deal with them. Working with the Romeo, Fire Scout will provide a persistent wide area ISR capability against small swarming boats and pirate vessels at the outer layer ofa ship’s defences, while in an anti-submarine situation, there are notional plans to equip Fire Scout with deployable sonar buoys, a magnetic anomaly detector, an acoustic relay, and periscope detection sensors that are complementary with the Romeo.

For larger vessels such as LHDs and other amphibious ships, while there are no current firm plans to deploy the system with such vessels, Fire Scout offers the potential to increase the capability of these ships’ combat systems by adding to their situational awareness, particularly in crowded littoral environments or in amphibious or humanitarian operations. And with its planned logistics capability, the Fire Scout’s potential ability to move materiel from ship to shore and back, a concept which has already been proven with the MQ-8B and the larger K-Max in Afghanistan, could be a real game-changer.

Foreign interest

Northrop Grumman is coy about any potential foreign interest in Fire Scout, and Fuqua explained that the system currently falls under the highest level of the US’s strict ITARS export limitations. But he added that a case could probably be made for “certain countries” to be given access to the system with the appropriate political backing.

Australia would presumably fall into the “certain country” category, having previously been granted access to high-end systems such as the EA‑18G Growler and MH-60R Romeo Seahawk. There is certainly a strong desire within the US Navy for a high degree of interoperability with nations such as Australia, especially with the US’s ‘pivot’ towards the Pacific region in the coming decade. Further, Fire Scout has been designed from the outset to work hand-in-hand with the Romeo, the first of which were handed over to the RAN on December 10.

Given the political environment locally, the RAN is also playing it cool when it comes to discussing the possibility of future acquisitions. The Navy’s deputy director of naval aviation, CMDR Matthew Royals told Australian Aviation that while “there is no current project in the DCP, (Navy) definitely realises the benefits that UASs have to offer. ” To this end, he said the Navy Capability Requirements & Analysis Branch was “working through the early stages of capability definition and requirements so it can better inform themselves on how to proceed. ” “It’s a crawl-walk-run process, and we’re not far off walking,” CMDR Royals said. “The good thing about UASs is there are a lot of choices, and the recent PAC13 (Pacific 2013 exposition) emphasised that. Navy is certainly aware of Fire Scout but it’s one of many options out there, and it would be subject to the same rigorous assessment as any other providers. ” Part of the definition process involves a trial currentlys being conducted in conjunction with Insitu Pacific using a ScanEagle UAS. “This experimentation…goes on until mid-2015,” CMDR Royals explained without elaborating on the nature of the trial. “It’s providing valuable information such as how to develop CONOPs and to experiment with different payloads. It hasn’t defined what ship platforms we’d operate from yet, but ideally any of our platforms should be able to accommodate a UAS. ” He added that the goal of the trial was to be able to inform the “policy makers appropriately with a properly defined need and requirement. ”