Early on the afternoon of October 31, at the Naval Base Ventura County, the first flight test of the MQ-8C unmanned helicopter got under way .
Based upon a Bell 407 chopper the MQ-8C is will have twice the endurance and triple the carry capacity of its predecessor the MQ-8B. According to Northrop Grumman, the designer of the drone, the MQ-8C will be abled to fly for up to 12 hours with a fully loaded payload of 2,600lbs.
“Operating the MQ-8B Fire Scout from Navy ships has proved extremely successful,” says George Vardoulakis, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for medium range tactical systems. “During at-sea deployments, operators saw the need for a system that carried the same intelligence-gathering capabilities of the MQ-8B, but fly longer and carry additional payloads. Changing out the airframe, installing control systems and avionics, and then conducting a first flight of the system in a year is truly remarkable. I couldn’t be more proud of the team.”
Northrop Grumman expects to begin delivering the first of the Navy’s 30 MQ-8C’s by mid-2014. Current cost estimates peg each MQ-8C at $18.4M, pretty cheap for a piece of military hardware, but still pretty expensive for a high-tech retrofit.
Images Courtesy of Northrop Grumman