The Navy may debut Northrop Grumman's MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft on a different
air-capable ship if the Littoral Combat Ship program faces delays, a Navy official said.
"It is qualified to land on any
air-capable ship," he said in an interview.
Following guidance in the Plane Captain Manual (A1-H60RAGAI-010), which provides procedures for manual aircraft handling, and the Aircraft Operating Procedures for
Air-Capable Ships NATOPS Manual (NAVAIR 00-80T-122), detachment leadership began to formulate a plan to move Easyrider 41 back into the hangar.
One area that certainly ought to have been more developed is the alternative
air-capable ships that were proposed, the 'Pike Ship' and the 'Thorneycraft'.
FOD always is a major safety concern on all Navy
air-capable ships.
It can operate from all
air-capable ships and is designed to provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting data to tactical users.
The Fire Scout UAV program strives to provide safe, reliable, repeatable, autonomous flight operations in a maritime environment from all
air-capable ships. When operational, Fire Scout will provide critical situational awareness, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting data to the forward-deployed warfighter.
Every major nation took note of British experiences and soon several other countries were planning
air-capable ships. America was certainly in on this important development, but was held back by the traditional turf-guarding of surface-ship admirals.
On
air-capable ships, nonaviators fill many roles on the ship normally filled by aviators on aviation ships.