Amphibious Operations: Ship-Launched MQ-8C Fire Scout Drone Massively Extends Future Warfighting Options

Video Above: US Sends Drone Boats to Ukraine

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

The Navy is making massive moves to expand its multidomain operational capacity by experimenting with new methods of deploying its ship-launched drones from both land and sea.

The intent is clearly interoperability, something heavily emphasized by the Pentagon as the military services fast-track various efforts to ensure Navy ships, Air Force fighter jets and Army ground forces can exchange time-sensitive targeting data and surveillance information across different formats, domains, transport layers and communication systems.

As part of this comprehensive expansion into more multi-domain activity, something which has included the use of Multi-Domain Task Forces in key spots around the world such as the Pacific, the individual services have been working to expand the operational envelope of their weapons platforms and technologies. For example, the Navy recently achieved a breakthrough milestone with its ship-launched MQ-8C Fire Scout drone by transitioning from ship-to-shore in a maritime environment.

“The MQ-8C Fire Scout participated in the Resolute Hunter exercise June 21-July 1, flying a total of 23 hours and proving the unmanned helicopter’s expeditionary use from land and across multiple ship classes,” a Naval Air Systems Command report said. Resolute Hunter is a joint and coalition large force exercise focused on training personnel on battle management, command and control and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the Navy story said.

“Fire Scout is the Navy’s only unmanned helicopter with the ability to deploy from a ship or land with ISR&T at the extended range required for future warfighting,” Capt. Dennis Monagle, Fire Scout program manager, said in a report from Naval Air Systems Command. “The system is vital in expeditionary use for situational awareness and critical decision-making.”