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By Ann Roosevelt
Northrop Grumman [NOC] is preparing to begin fielding its multi- role tactical MQ-5B Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the Army this fall, an official said.
The 5B is a modern version of the MQ-5A , addressing issues such as obsolescence, for example, replacing the Motoguzzi gasoline engines with the heavy-fuel engine.
"We started that under [internal research and development] IR&D in 2001, and then turned that into a replacement effort," Jim Bennett, Northrop Grumman MQ-5B program manager, told sister publication Defense Daily in a recent interview.
A second issue was improving the flight computer. "We went from a partially redundant flight computer with an old 8086 processor to a new Motorola 8265 processor that's fully redundant--dual redundant flight computer," he said. Additionally, old gyro units were replaced, so there's dramatic improvement.
Additionally, while looking at components and conducting trade studies to address obsolescence, Northrop Grumman was also trying to...