Drone - Fire Scout oppdatering - Skyter ikke JSM, men Harpoon - AIN

U.S. Navy Fire Scout Fleet Needs More Ship Deployments James Drew  As aircraft continue piling up at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California, the U.S. Navy anticipates more deployments of the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B/C Fire Scout over the coming years as additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) enter service. Northrop has already delivered 42 of the vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) UAVs, and another 11 are under contract, with congressional authorization for four more in this year’s defense bill. Of those, 23 are second-generation MQ-8Bs based on the Schweizer 333, and the remainder are third-generation MQ-8Cs built from converted Bell Helicopter 407s. After more than 17 years of development, refinement and operational experience, beginning with the original Teledyne Ryan/Schweizer RQ-8A, program officials believe the remotely piloted helicopter has an important role to play in future maritime operations. But the Fire Scout needs to be integrated with more ships for the growing fleet to be fully utilized. East Coast’s first squadron declared “safe to operate” U.S. Navy to reconfigure MQ-8C to accommodate Leonardo’s Osprey radar Twenty-three MQ-8Bs and 19 MQ-8Cs have already been delivered, but with the Independence- and Freedom-class LCS warships still maturing, and operational deployments scaling more slowly than originally expected, many Fire Scouts are sitting idle. The first squadron on the East Coast, Helicopter Sea Combat Sqdn. 22 (HSC-22), will not receive aircraft for some time, despite being declared “safe to operate” in November 2017.

“We have a handful of others with squadrons that are in their training phase preparing for future deployments, but yes, most are there in Point Mugu. That is largely driven by ship schedules,” said Capt. Jeffrey Dodge, who leads U.S. Naval Air Systems Command’s multimission tactical unmanned air systems group (PMA-266), at a December media roundtable. At the time, two MQ-8Bs were returning from an 11-month deployment to Southeast Asia aboard the USS Coronado (LCS-4), an Independence-class trimaran from Naval Base San Diego. It was the MQ-8B’s first time deploying with the Telephonics ZPY-4 multimode maritime radar providing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting support. Operating cooperatively with the MH-60S Seahawk, the Fire Scouts of LCS-4 were involved in several naval exercises. even providing targeting information during the Coronado’s test launch of a Boeing Harpoon Block 1C over-the-horizon anti-ship missile. In April 2017, the new MQ-8C took flight from another Independence-class vessel, the USS Montgomery, for the first time during a two-week event at sea. Over the coming years, both VTOL UAV variants are expected to see increased utilization as more of the lightweight combat ships are put to sea. Naval Sea Systems Command’s deputy program manager for LCS, Neal White, noted during a briefing in Washington in January that 11 of the vessels have now been delivered, and another 18 are under contract. Congress has also authorized procurement of another three ships this year.

The Navy believes the combination of manned Sikorsky MH-60 Seahawks and unmanned MQ-8 Fire Scouts will be a potent combination for future maritime operations. Credit: Northrop Grumman

Meanwhile, the MQ-8 will likely feature on whatever upgraded ship eventually succeeds LCS, with the Navy exploring designs for a small guided-missile frigate, known as the FFG(X). Dodge notes that the semiautonomous helicopter will also be integrated with Military Sealift Command’s new expeditionary mobile base vessels beginning with the fourth ship, the USNS Hershel “Woody” Williams (T-ESB-4), in an optional “load-on, load-off” configuration. “We think that will drive up Fire Scout operations,” he says.

The MQ-8C, which has 12 hr. of endurance, more than double that of the Schweizer 333 version, is due to begin initial operational testing and evaluation in April after several years of development. The aircraft flies farther, faster, higher and carries more payload weight than the MQ-8B, and should be ready for shipborne operations this summer, says Dodge. Along with an increased operational tempo, the range of capabilities will continue to expand on both versions. In addition to target identification improvements for the aircraft’s electro-optical/infrared surveillance and laser targeting system, Fire Scout can now carry the DVS-1 Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis mine detection sensor. DVS-1 entered military service last July, and was tested on an MQ-8B last October. Also, the MQ-8C is receiving Leonardo’s Osprey active, electronically scanned array surface-search radar, with a wider 240-deg. field of view compared to MQ-8B’s peripheral vision of 180 deg. Jack Thomas, Northrop’s director of tactical autonomous systems mission engineering, calls the MQ-8C’s new radar a “game changer.” The Navy recently received the first couple of radar sets from Leonardo and is now conducting trade studies on how best to integrate them with the MQ-8C platform. It will likely require a significant redesign and retrofit of the aircraft’s front end, Dodge confirms. The radar’s data will tie into the mission control system using the Navy’s new Minotaur software architecture, which is also being used in the next Boeing P-8A Poseidon upgrade. The radar has already undergone initial testing in the laboratory, and installation on operational MQ-8Cs should begin in 2019 or 2020.

The Navy says 2017 was a “pivotal year” for the Fire Scout program, as additional systems were validated and two MQ-8Bs embarked on a tour  of Southeast Asia aboard LCS-4. Credit: U.S. Navy

Additionally, the Fire Scout program is exploring new optical landing technologies that could be incorporated as a backup for today’s radar-based landing system. Using homography, the Fire Scout will land the same way a helicopter pilot does, by observing visual markings on the ship. The Fire Scout’s Link 16 tactical data link will also be upgraded to send J-series messages to weapons for inflight target updates. This will be an increasingly important feature as modern, network-enabled weapons are fielded such as the Harpoon Block 2+. Plans to incorporate forward-firing weapons have been put on hold. The MQ-8B has conducted several tests with the BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, but the Navy’s priority is to field those laser-guided 2.75-in. rockets on other attack platforms such as the Marine Corps’ Bell AH-1Z Viper. “The priority is to get the sensors first and make sure the connectivity is there, then get into weapons,” Dodge says. “We see a bright future as we look out into 2018 and some of the exciting development efforts we are exploring,” notes Northrop’s Fire Scout program director Melissa Packwood. “We are excited for 2018,” Dodge adds.