Grand Sky Development Company LLC (Grand Sky) has announced that it will purchase Northrup Grumman’s optionally piloted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft system, Firebird.

Designed to provide critical ISR capability to meet the mission needs of customers, Firebird is available in manned, autonomous and optionally piloted configurations.

“We are excited to bring Firebird to Grand Sky to utilize its long-endurance and variable payload capabilities for commercial customers,” says Grand Sky Development Co. President Thomas Swoyer Jr.

“Our initial goal is to support energy infrastructure monitoring and humanitarian and disaster relief operations by leveraging Firebird’s range, altitude and endurance.”

The first commercial UAS testing and training center in the nation, Grand Sky is home to one of Northrop Grumman’s North Dakota locations. Grand Sky offers services and capabilities that not only support large UAS operations, but will also help define how UAS are used based on their ability to collect large amounts of different types of data.

Equipped with capabilities to meet critical information gaps for Grand Sky’s clients and partners, Firebird can perform various mission sets using a number of different sensors that allow data to be collected for various customers on every mission.

Capable of reaching anywhere in the country, Firebird can operate for 30 or more hours, and support multiple missions at the same time.

“The goal is to have the aircraft deployed around the country on a variety of missions,” Swoyer explains.

“Our ability to map vast areas, stay “on-station” over an area for long periods of time to support emergency response or to reach remote areas is unmatched. No small UAS or small UAS swarm can match the capability and versatility of Firebird.”

Firebird will be based at Grand Sky. Once launched, it can fly anywhere in the country, and stay on station for multiple hours before returning. Besides ISR, Firebird has several other mission capabilities including domestic security, emergency response and scientific efforts.