MQ8B Fire Scout Unmanned Helicopter Shot Down Over Libya

A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (N.A.T.O.) unmanned helicopter appears to have been shot down in Libya*.

Film shown by C.N.N. appears to show the remains of an MQ8B Fire Scout helicopter,a type used by the United States' Navy.

As far as this blog is aware this may be the first unmanned helicopter to be shot down in combat.

If the loss was due to enemy action it is possible that it was the result of the unmanned helicopter having less situational awareness than a manned aircraft and if that is the case there are serious implications for the unmanned helicopter program.




*Thanks to Solomon at SNAFU for highlighting that.

Raptor for Reaper?

In another post we recently determined that the only major reason for keeping Tornado in Afghanistan was it's ability to use the Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for TORnado  (R.A.P.Tor).

We pointed out that there are other platforms such as Nimrod and Typhoon which could also carry R.A.P.Tor eventually.

We also mentioned that the Royal Air Force had already trialled R.A.P.Tor on Reaper Unmanned Air Vehicles (U.A.V.s) back in 2005.

These trials were successful.

The Royal Air Force has operated Reaper Unmanned Air Vehicles (U.A.V.s) for 3 years now.

Royal Air Force Reapers are currently operating in Afghanistan.


There are 5 Reapers in Royal Air Force service at present.

Reaper has an endurance of over 30 hours per sortie.

This is far in excess of the handful of hours of R.A.P.Tor coverage flown by the Tornado fleet in Afghanistan each day.

Reapers equipped with the R.A.P.Tor system (known as DB 110 by it's manufacturer Goodridge) could provide more sensor coverage in Afghanistan than the Tornado fleet at far lower cost.

According to Lord West of Spithead,cutting the entire Tornado fleet would save a great deal more than cutting the Harriers:

"In terms of cost, if we remove the Tornado force, we would be looking at about £7.5 billion by 2018.

With the Harriers, we are looking at less than £1 billion."

Keeping the Tornado instead of the Harrier will cost £6,500 Million.


A flight of 4 Reapers costs about £33 Million.

It appears that the Americans understand that there are better ways to get R.A.P.Tor sensor coverage than by using expensive,short endurance,fast jets.

The following is one of Senator John Kerry's Financial Year (F.Y.) 2011 budget requests:

"Potential Recipient: Goodrich ISR Systems

Location: Chelmsford, MA

Purpose: DB-110 on MQ-9

Request: $6,000,000

Project Description:

This program will provide a DB-110 airborne sensory system and its corresponding ground equipment for the US Navy.

The DB-110 sensor will be integrated onto an MQ-9 Reaper to augment the platform’s existing sensors with a long range wide area search/cueing capability."

Senator Kerry "get's it".

Perhaps he could explain it to his counterparts on this side of the Atlantic.

More sensor coverage at lower cost translates into more young men coming home in one piece.

Maybe one day the Ministry of Defence will start to use taxpayers money in a responsible manner.