Fire Scout and UAV news.

[Chesehead]

http://jacksonville.com/military/jax-ai ... oming-home

squadron members broke new ground in the field of rotary wing aviation by being the first to deploy aboard a U.S. Navy ship with four vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles (VTUAVs)

On a frigate by the way.

For VTUAV's, that would be the logical place to put them. Too bad the latest batch of Navy Frigates are designed around operating them instead of full size convetional helicopters. I think that they have a pretty bright future, especially given advances in underwater launched SAM's from subs.

[Chesehead]

Cool stuff happening over with the people in a different shade of blue.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57556 ... -take-off/

[tkobo]

Its a shame its not a little smaller,word is the race is basically down to this or the sea avenger for the 80+ unit contract.I like this better,but the size is an issue...

[tkobo]

On its last live testing run, the fire scout set a new record of 24 hours of continuous surveillance.the four scouts used maintained over 24 hours of continuous surveillance

[Balthagor]

Related industry news;

http://www.janes.com/products/janes/def ... 1065927324

Hammerhead Unmanned Surface Vehicle by Meggitt.

[tkobo]

Word is fire scout just got approved for a more powerful radar.
---
This is also very cool.
http://www.technewsdaily.com/16384-mili ... video.html

They need a sub version as well.A sub version would be harder for an intruder to detect without giving itself away.

[tkobo]

Almost forgot, the firescout also has new orders,and some of them are also for next generation.

http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-pr ... _mill.html

[tkobo]

First of the new firescouts has arrived,its much larger but still able to operate off of a frigate.Range,carry capacity,and radar are among the improvements.