Manufacturer: Northrop Grumman [NYSE: NOC]
Sometimes I have trouble controlling myself when it comes to some of this stuff. I have seen it before on TV, but just simply haven’t gotten around to writing about it. I’m talking about the awe-inspiring Fire Scout UAV helicopter. A remote control helicopter capable of autonomous take-off, landing, and flight, it really just makes me giddy. Not to mention that this death machine’s release was coupled with an upgrade to the Hydra 70 rockets typically fired from the rocket pods mounted on Ah-64 Apaches. Now they’re laser-guided. I guess they figured that they just couldn’t have a creation as brilliant as this tainted by “dumb” unguided payloads. Seen this guy on Future Weapons yet? Of course they’ve already made some with the Metal Storm gun mounted to the weapons pylons.
This bad boy has already been procured by the US Army, whose interest in turn spurred a purchase by the US Navy. The Fire Scout actually landed on a moving ship during, on auto-pilot, during its testing phase. The Fire Scout will eventually end up being deployed at the brigade level, and I’m sure that they are looking forward to having such a weapon added to their already Omni potently superior arsenal. Actually though, it really is just one of the cogs in the network-centric warfare concept known as Future Combat Systems.
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