U.S. Navy Fire Scout Fleet Needs More Ship Deployments

As aircraft continue piling up at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California, the U.S. Navy anticipates more deployments of the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B/C Fire Scout over the coming years as additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) enter service. Northrop has already delivered 42 of the vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) UAVs, and another 11 are under contract, with congressional authorization for four more in this year’s defense bill. Of those, 23 are second-generation MQ-8Bs ...