Army looks to put Fire Scout on fast track

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A Fire Scout shown on display on Capitol Hill for the Army's birthday celebration June 11. The Fire Scout is now being tested and developed by both services.


Army looks to put Fire Scout on fast track
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 5:47:36 EDT

The Army is still hoping to speed up delivery of the 3,000-pound, vertical-takeoff, helicopterlike Fire Scout MQ-8B UAV being developed for Future Combat Systems, service officials said.

“We have looked at a number of initiatives to get this into the current fight. As technology is available, we want to get it to the fight,” said Army Lt. Col. Win Keller, product manager for future forces unmanned aircraft systems. “We could use current force radios and current force sensors, but we would still have to go through all of the operational testing. Right now, we don’t have funding to do that. That is something we are constantly looking at.”

In years to come, the Fire Scout will be able to beam sensor images in real time to FCS-networked armored vehicles on the move in combat, said Scott Davis, deputy program manager for FCS.

“You can program its mission. You can just hit a button and it picks up and hovers and does a preflight check and when you are ready to go, you can hit go and it will run the route,” Davis said. “As FCS battle command advances, soldiers driving in networked vehicles will be able to take control of it from various platforms and change its route.”

As a joint Army-Navy program, the Fire Scout is now being tested and developed by both services; the Army joined a Navy buy and purchased its first eight airframes, which are now being integrated at Moss Point, Miss. The electronic systems onboard include synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical sensors, multi-spectral imaging and laser designation technology.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/defense_firescout_061608/



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