$8.3M to Test RQ-8 Fire Scout VTUAV on HSV-2 Swift
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Northrop Grumman Systems Corp in San Diego, CA is being awarded an $8.3 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-00-C-0277) for shipboard testing of the RQ-8 Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, including shipboard installation and flight testing on the High Speed Vessel-2 USS Swift.
The RQ-8B VTUAV will serve as an important element of the USA’s new Littoral Combat Ships, and has also been selected as the Class IV Brigade level UAV for the Army’s $120+ billion Future Combat Systems program. USS Swift was doing extensive work as a prototype testbed, and this group of Incat-designed HSV/TSV vessels has also been testing UAVs like the ScanEagle.
Work on this contract will be performed in San Diego, CA and is expected to be complete in June 2006. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract.
