Navy May Expand Fire Scout Drone Missions into More Amphibious Operations, Sub-Hunting

Video Above: US Sends Drone Boats to Ukraine

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

As the well known, helicopter-like MQ-8B Fire Scout drone flies beyond the horizon into the sunset after many years of successful missions, the Navy and its industry partners are sharpening focus on its larger, more-capable successor … the MQ-8C Fire Scout variant.

MQ-8C Fire Scout

Engineered with a wide range of expanded technologies, the “C” model leverages an unmanned Bell 407 helicopter frame to deploy a larger, massively upgraded vertical-take-off-and-landing maritime drone.

Northrop Grumman developers say that the MQ-8C’s value to the Navy is its flexibility and endurance.

“It’s a Swiss army knife – with the ability to carry much more payload than other smaller systems and handle the Navy’s broad spectrum of missions from MCM and ASW, to MUMT and potential cargo,” a Northrop developer said.

Part of this transition pertains to an interesting and impactful Navy shift away from its Littoral Combat Ship, given the service’s plans to decommission as many as eight to 10 LCS ships, according to its 2023 budget request. The rationale, as explained to Congress by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, is based upon a service assessment that the LCS simply could not compete against a highly advanced Russian or Chinese Naval threat.