Unmanned & Beyond
Going No-man Vertical As DoD explores the advantages offered by autonomous unmanned helicopters, the joint services are targeting two platforms in particular to fill an operational need. By Chad Samuels, A&M Editor
Northrop Grumman Corporation and Bell Helicopter, a Textron Company, have announced the product of a joint effort to address DoD’s needs for a heavier lift, longer range capability in unmanned helicopter technology. Called Fire-X, the mediumrange vertical unmanned aerial system (VUAS) will enable warfighters to keep tabs on their enemies for longer periods of time, communicate more easily with their commanders, and deliver more cargo to more remote locations than possible by any other existing VUAS platform. An integration of the unmanned systems architecture developed in the U.S. Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout program with Bell Helicopter’s 407 helicopter airframe, Fire-X represents Northrop Grumman’s entry in an anticipated competition by the U.S. Navy in 2011 to demonstrate a new medium-range UAS.
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The new rugged, high-capacity UAS, based on the fourblade, single-engine design of the Bell 407 helicopter, will incorporate Fire Scout’s modular, field-proven architecture that accommodates a variety of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and communications payloads. Its modular architecture will support rapid integration, test and deployment for missions that demand larger payloads (up to 3000 pounds), longer endurance (more than 14 hours) and robust cargo hauling (up to 2646 pounds external). The VUAS will be compatible with ISR capabilities such as electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), communications relay, signal intelligence (SIGINT), electronics intelligence (ELINT), and multi-intelligence (Multi-Int) sensors for real-time targeting.
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