Northrop Grumman & U.S. Navy Demonstrate Fire Scout Capabilities

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy recently planned a 10-hour, 150 nautical mile flight for the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter.

The system stayed in the air for 11 hours with more than an hour of fuel in reserve—a new flight record set by a drone designed to provide persistent reconnaissance, situational awareness and precision targeting support for ground, air and sea forces, according to a news release.

The MQ-8C Fire Scout left from the Naval Base in Ventura County, Point Mugu, according to the release. The long-range, long-endurance flight was part of a series of capability based tests the Navy is using to validate their concept of operations and previously tested performance parameters.

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