Taiwan media announced new military procurement. It is reported that the Pentagon has approved the sale of MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter systems to Taipei. This makes Taiwan the first export customer of the MQ-8B Fire Scout platform.
Taiwan was planning to replace the aging MD 500 helicopters with MH-60R Romeo helicopters. However, as most of the budget of Republic of China Navy allocated to the programs with high priority such as the indigenious submarine project, Because of this, Taipei had to suspend this request.
The MQ-8B Fire Scout platform, which can fly autonomously, has 8 hours endurance depending on the mission configuration. The system can reach 115 knots and can operate at an altitude of 20,000 feet. Platform can be controlled with NATO STANAG 4586-compatible Tactical Control System (TCS) at a distance of 110 nautical miles. Fire Scout is capable of performing tasks such as reconnaissance, surveillance, mine detection and sonobuoy delivery.
