Independent research and development dollars are promising to help Northrop Grumman expand the customer base for its Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, with the U.S. Coast Guard slated to closely evaluate the aircraft.

The Coast Guard is actively pursuing a vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) to satisfy requirements for its National Security Cutter (NSC). In October, the service used Northrop Grumman's company-owned Fire Scout, aircraft P6, for land-based tests from Webster Field at NAS Patuxent River, Md.

The P6 is equipped with an off-the-shelf Telephonics RDR-1700B imaging surveillance radar, which the Coast Guard identified as a "critical characteristic for a UAV to impact NSC mission performance," according to Bill Posage, program manager of the Coast Guard's research and development center. The Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout does not have the radar yet.

The P6 was a "platform of opportunity," says Posage. Northrop Grumman used its own money to integrate the non-developmental radar on the aircraft and has been pouring research funds into Fire Scout to reduce risk. The company is trying to make the platform more attractive to the U.S. services, which do not seem to have the time or money to run their own tests.

The Navy, for example, plans to begin developing a radar for its MQ-8B this fiscal year but will not field it until 2011. Responses to a request for proposals are now in hand, and a type selection is expected next year. The Army, following dissolution of its Future Combat Systems program, is re-examining its entire approach to UAVs and may not field Fire Scout until 2014, according to current requirements (AW&ST Nov. 16, p. 59).

Posage says the recent P6 flight tests by the Coast Guard focused on "how a VTUAV with a radar could operate in a maritime environment," and was not a test of the "radar per se. We're trying to feed the acquisition program with analysis."

Gary Dehnel, Coast Guard UAS acquisition program manager, notes the Fire Scout is "probably a good way to go," but he warns, "we're not there yet." The Coast Guard is still entertaining all options.

As part of its ongoing analysis, the service has participated in numerous exercises with other platforms, according to Posage, including Boeing's A160 Hummingbird, an AeroVironment vehicle and ScanEagle tested on board a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship. "We've made ourselves available and have observed as many suitable UASs as we could," Posage says.

Cmdr. Tom Swanberg, chief of aviation capabilities integration for the Coast Guard, is documenting UAV use in the service. "All of this [testing] lends itself to becoming familiar with what's in the realm of the possible," he says.

The Coast Guard has taken an efficient (and cost-effective) approach to UAVs, drawing on the experience of other services. It works closely with Customs and Border Protection on Predator B testing and now looks to the Navy for advice on Fire Scout. It's a way of "streamlining and reducing risk," Dehnel says. "That's where we'll get efficiencies of cost and schedule."

Land-based tests of Fire Scout can "only go so far . . . The next step is to figure out how to get it onboard ship," says Posage. Over the next few weeks, notional plans are being mapped out for just such a test. In a recent call with reporters, Adm. Ron Rabago, Coast Guard acquisitions chief, said the service hopes "to do a cutter-based test in Fiscal 2010."

In the meantime, the Navy is sailing the USS McInerney with a Fire Scout and a Coast Guard liaison on board. "We're getting first-hand knowledge and feedback from them," Posage says. One Coast Guard officer has been trained to be a Fire Scout air vehicle operator and a second may finish training in December or January.

Whatever the Coast Guard decides, it will be informed by a concept of operations, preliminary operational requirements and a final report and recommendation due in March 2010. The Coast Guard also still needs to secure funding to buy a VTUAV, with industry officials indicating the goal is to do so in the next budget cycle.

Photo credit: Northrop Grumman