Northrop reports successful Fire Scout engine test
Intended for naval purposes, UAV sports eight hours of endurance and a sophisticated communications system
The last we heard from Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout UAV, the Navy — having conducted succesful tests in 2003 — had ordered two new of the craft as part of a $16.2 million contract modification. With a total endurance of eight hours, the Fire Scout is well fitted for naval purposes, and its sophisticated electronics can also function as a communications node and a communications relay within the “proposed network-centric warfare battle space of the future.” Now we can report that the Fire Scout has succesfully performed an engine run of the drone, marking the end of the initial assembly process and the beginning of the long wait for delivery of mission avionics and sensors. The tests were performed at Northrop’s new Moss Point, Mississippi Unmanned Systems Center.
Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout team includes Horseheads, New York-based Schweizer Aircraft Corporation; Oswego, New York-based Lockheed Martin Systems Integration; Salt Lake City, Utah-based L-3 Communications; and Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada.
