Mobile Magazine » MQ-8B Fire Scout http://www.mobilemag.com Gadgets, Smartphones, Android Tablets, iPhone, iPad and all the latest tech you'd expect. Tue, 21 May 2013 16:15:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Navy Drone goes M.I.A. for 23 miles, 30 minutes: Skynet? http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/08/26/navy-drone-goes-m-i-a-for-23-miles-30-minutes-skynet/ http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/08/26/navy-drone-goes-m-i-a-for-23-miles-30-minutes-skynet/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:57:46 +0000 Bob Bounila http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=94982 What happens when a multi-million dollar US Navy drone takes off and disconnects from their operator? A whole lot of panicking, thats what. August 2nd an MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing drone, a fancy name for an unmanned surveillance vehicle, was cruising at about 2,000 feet when all of a sudden its operators lost control over it.

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]]> What happens when a multi-million dollar US Navy drone takes off and disconnects from their operator? A whole lot of panicking, thats what. August 2nd an MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing drone, a fancy name for an unmanned surveillance vehicle, was cruising at about 2,000 feet when all of a sudden its operators lost control over it. Now this was considered when Northrop Grumman manufactured the little spy-copter, if and when it did happen, the Fire Scout would be programmed to automatically return home; in this case, it didn’t.

The Navy is still confused about the situation, not knowing what caused the disconnect, and why the drone did not return. Commander Danny Hernandez, a Navy spokesman, told the NYT “When they lose contact with the Fire Scout, there’s a program that’s supposed to have it immediately return to the airfield to land safely. That did not happen as planned.”

As a result, all 6 Fire Scout drones have been grounded. The Navy did eventually regain control of the drone somewhere in D.C. half-hour and 23 miles later, but that’s enough to take a serious look at the so called “software glitch” that caused it. Let’s just hope these things aren’t carrying live ammunition.

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