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Saturday, May 03, 2014

Mississippi-built Fire Scout aircraft on Navy’s cutting block

MQ-8B Fire ScoutPresident Barack Obama’s proposed 2015 budget drops funding for purchases of the Navy’s unmanned, rotary-winged Fire Scout aircraft, which takes off and lands from ships and is being built in Moss Point, Miss., home state of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

Even more ominous for the Fire Scout program, the Navy’s five-year plan zeroes out its funding after purchasing the first 40 of them, heightening prospects that it might be among defense systems most endangered in a wave of budget cuts.

However, the funding freeze wouldn’t affect deliveries of 17 aircraft of an upgraded model that’s still being tested with money committed previously. That version is larger, is equipped with radar to help identify surveillance targets, can carry weapons and can fly farther than the 110-mile range of the original MQ-8B Fire Scout.

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