MQ-8 UAV

MQ-8 Unmanned Air Vehicle (UA V) under the Navy's Research Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) budget activity aims to support the development and integration of advanced capabilities for the MQ-8C Fire Scout system. The program's specific objectives include enhancing the MQ-8C's mission control systems, data link networks, and optical sensor systems to provide improved situational awareness and targeting capabilities for maritime operations. Additionally, the program seeks to support the MQ-8C's operational testing and evaluation efforts to ensure its readiness for deployment on Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), Expeditionary Mobile Bases (T-ESB), and Future Frigate (FFG(X)) platforms.

The program also focuses on addressing emerging fleet requirements through the integration and improvement of Common Operational Picture (COP) capabilities, avionics, payloads, range, endurance, and targeting for the MQ-8C Fire Scout system. This includes efforts to integrate a non-developmental maritime radar into the system to enhance situational awareness of the Recognized Maritime Picture (RMP) and provide multiple operational modes for surface search, track, maritime target classification, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) target classification capabilities. Furthermore, the program aims to develop and integrate data link network capabilities to disseminate sensor track data and connect Fleet users for increased situational awareness. The optical sensor system is also being developed to enable the MQ-8C to land on ships during emissions control operations without requiring the use of UCARS, thereby expanding its operational capabilities. These efforts are supported by funding allocations for hardware and system development, cyber security updates, engineering and technical services, as well as test and evaluation activities.