The U.S. Navy said on May 1 that it awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $10.8 million contract to develop something the Navy calls a multicapability pod, which will go on the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. The pod will contain electronic warfare sensors for use in the littorals, or areas near shore. The Navy plans to integrate the structure into the MQ-8C — the newer, larger model of the Fire Scout — and plans to buy two multicapability pods and one “mass model” pod.
Work will be conducted over a little more than a year, and will be split between Rancho Bernardo — the home of all Northrop Grumman unmanned aircraft programs — and Chantilly, Va. One percent of the work will go to Fort Worth, Texas.
The Naval Air Systems Command of Patuxent River, Md. awarded the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, which uses funds from fiscal 2013.
