Northrop Grumman’s RQ-8B Fire Scout team is being forced to defend its two-year grip on a US Army contract for a new fleet of Class IV unmanned helicopters from two emerging – but unsolicited – challengers.
Responding to the competitive pressure, Northrop says it could deliver a complete unmanned aircraft system – including four RQ-8Bs, ground control station and support equipment – to the army at least four years early in 2007.
“We want to make sure [the army] understands that they could get the aircraft if they need it,” says Michael Fuqua, Northrop’s Fire Scout business and strategy development manager.
The Fire Scout has been the army’s designated Class IV unmanned aircraft since 2003, the year it was selected by the Boeing/SAIC lead systems integrator team for the Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme.
Boeing, however, has been working for more than a year to usurp the Fire Scout’s claim on Class IV, aggressively developing and testing its Unmanned Little Bird (ULB), and continuing a marketing blitz, despite the manned Little Bird losing the army’s armed reconnaissance helicopter (ARH) contest.
Waldo Carmona, Boeing’s director of advanced rotorcraft programmes, admits the loss of the ARH deal was a blow for the ULB’s chances, but insists there is hope of attracting a new order.
Bell, meanwhile, has confirmed it is to develop an unmanned version of the 407X, with which it won the $3.6 billion ARH deal, to challenge the Fire Scout for the Class IV UAV requirement.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
