Free Republic

Things could get a lot busier for the Navy's fleet of Fire Scout drones with the service's decision to drop plans for a new, medium-range unmanned aircraft. The larger C model version of the MQ-8 Fire Scout might fill some of the requirements left unfilled by the Navy's decision to cancel the Medium-Range Maritime Unmanned Aerial System program earlier this year. The Navy stands to save $200 million in fiscal 2013 and $1.3 billion over the next five years as a result of the MRMUAS cancellation, Naval Air Systems Command spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove said in an email. The MRMUAS was...

Two San Diego County defense contractors are hustling to develop a new generation of comparatively inexpensive, unmanned aerial vehicles in the wake of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ call for a less costly naval arsenal. Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Gates said the military needs to re-examine whether it can afford so many aircraft carriers and submarines when more money is needed to underwrite the Army and Marine Corps. Those two branches of the military are leading the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the Navy is playing a supporting role. The Navy, whose second-largest home base is San Diego,...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in her new role as member of the Armed Services committee, wants an unmanned helicopter manufactured partly in New York to become a new weapon in the U.S. military's arsenal. Clinton has been pushing for money for the Fire Scout, a high-tech helicopter produced by Northrop Grumman Corp., with the main component made by Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in Elmira.