Program Name – Fire Scout MQ-8C

Business Unit: Aerospace Systems – Unmanned Systems

Program Name:Fire Scout MQ-8C

Program Leader:George Vardoulakis

Program Leader Contact Info (email/phone):/ 858-618-4030

Nominated Category: System Level R&D / SDD

The MQ-8C program team exemplified excellence in performance under a highly compressed rapid development capability (RDC) effort. The team achieved first (and second!) flight on October 31, 2013 only 18 months after contract award. The program logged its first flight within two months of its objective,and ahead of the threshold date,set two years earlier, even with a delayed contract award. Accuracy in engineering and first-time quality in software and hardware delivery supported a first flight with no major technical issues and allowed the program to continue flight test without interruption after first flight.In the past two years the program has compiled an impressive list of achievements, many of them revolutionary. These are summarized below:

2012: First demonstration of migrating existing UAV system architecture to a different platform

2012: First rotary wing UAV to execute development under an RDC acquisition concept

2012: First system software development to make use of automated test routines

2012: First UAV to make use of a DCHP Ethernet system network

2012: Initiated concurrent development and production

2013: First flight at NAWS Pt. Mugu

2014: Flew four flights in a single day from NAWS Pt. Mugu

Fire Scout MQ-8C RDC

The Fire Scout MQ-8C Program is an endurance upgrade to the existing VTUAV program of record, which replaces the MQ-8B’s Schweizer 333 airframe with the Bell 407 airframe.The operational requirement was specified in an Emergent Operational Need (EON) for persistent sea based UAS ISR support to Special Operations Forces (SOF) under U.S. Navy program management. Northrop Grumman was selected as the prime contractor after being identified as the only provider able to meet the compressed schedule and operational need date.

The Increment 1 phase of the Rapid Development/Deployment Capability (RDDC) consists of concurrent development and production. Two instrumented EMD aircraft are supporting the flight test effort at the same time six RDC air vehiclesare in manufacturing. The program has been awarded contract modifications for the production of an additional eleven RDC aircraft through October of 2015.The full RDC production plan for the program includes a total of 28 air vehicles over several years.

The development program scope includes: design and integration of the Bell helicopter with the Northrop Grumman unmanned system; militarization and marinization design and verification efforts; obsolescence and Diminishing Materials Suppliers (DMS) engineering andlogistics updates; and of course, system test and evaluation, which includes shipboard dynamic interface testing and an operational quick reaction assessment (QRA) to conclude.

The schedule has been unprecedented: PDR was held five months after contract award and CDR followed only threemonths later. Production was underway even as these and other systems engineering technical reviews (SETR) were progressing.

The team has faced and overcome the unique challenges that come with maintaining a rapid development program schedule while simultaneously respecting the necessary shipboard flight clearance requirements that allow no margin for error and correspondingly few opportunities for conventional streamlining. Nonetheless, the team has aggressively prosecuted the schedule and incorporated innovative and unconventional development concepts – particularly with regard to software development and test. This included the introduction of automated software requirements verification tests (RVTs), the net effect of which was a significant reduction in formal qualification lab test time.Unlike a fixed wing platform, turning engine and rotors require a flight clearance.Due to the condensed timeline en route to first flight, a novel approach was adopted to create parallel paths and prioritize lab testing to support a separate and early ground turn clearance coincident with the continuing flight software lab tests. This kept both the first vehicle ground turn and first flight within threshold target dates.

The team is making preparations for the first shipboard landings aboard USS Dunham (DDG-109) in the summer of 2014.