For the first time, Navy will launch weapons from surveillance drones.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: UPFRONT

Just like the Air Force, the Army and the CIA, the Navy soon could be deploying its own armed drones.

To that end, the Navy will request funds in fiscal year 2010 to begin outfitting its new surveillance drone with kinetic weapons.

The drone, which is scheduled to enter service next year, is the vertical-takeoff and landing tactical unmanned air vehicle, or VTUAV, which is also known as Fire Scout.

The aircraft is a modified Schweizer 333 helicopter that the Navy wants to fly off the decks of its littoral combat ships.

During the next several months, the Naval Air Systems Command will be examining various weapons that are considered viable candidates for the VTUAV.

"For the first time, we are looking at the integration of weapons on UAVs," said Cmdr. Robert Murphy, team leader at the Naval Air Systems Command.

The weapons must be lightweight, Murphy said at a conference of the Precision Strike Association. The Fire Scout can carry only a 600-pound payload. The aircraft is being equipped with electro-optical infrared cameras. The Navy is seeking funds in 2009 to add a radar sensor.

The manufacturer of Fire Scout, Northrop Grumman Corp. of San Diego, already has fired 2.75-inch unguided rockets from the aircraft in tests two years ago at the Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.

In the test, the Fire Scout lifted off, traveled nearly 10 miles to the firing range where the first rocket was fired. The aircraft remained in forward flight at about 40 knots during the first firing. For the second rocket launch, the Fire Scout increased its speed to 52 knots.

Northrop Grumman is under contract to build nine Fire Scouts but anticipates much bigger orders, said Michael Fuqua, a business development manager. The future of the aircraft is tied to the littoral combat ship. If the Navy reaches its current goal of building 56 ships, it could end up buying as many as 100 Fire Scouts. Fuqua said the aircraft also could fly off the decks of larger destroyers or amphibious vessels. "It is qualified to land on any air-capable ship," he said in an interview.

The contractor tests at Yuma, which the Navy did not fund, only proved that weapons could be launched from Fire Scout, but the Navy still needs to do considerably more research in this area, said Murphy.

Upcoming studies will address the options available for weapons and launch mechanisms, he said.

The Navy would prefer to use weapons that already exist. "We don't want to get tied to a big development," said Murphy...