Printed from https://fiscalreceipts.com/program/0588/ — built September 26, 2026. Every figure is citation-backed; see the page online for per-number provenance.
MQ-8 Series
Watch this program
Budget figures
No FY2026 R-1/P-1 request line for this program element. The FY2026 President's Budget request workbook carries no FY2026 line for it; its last workbook figure is FY2024. The PB2026 J-book detail below does carry an FY2026 row for this line, recorded as zero. A workbook blank and a documented zero are different records, and this page shows both. An absent line is not by itself an ending — PB2026 renumbered program elements at scale across the services and defense agencies, so this work may continue under a different number. No successor is linked for this line: this site's program-lineage layer holds no keyed edge pointing forward from here. That is an absence in this site's lineage layer, not a finding about the program: if the J-book narrative on this page describes a realignment, it is quoted below in the document's own words, and this note does not restate it.
FY2026 award data is a partial year — USAspending reports awards on a rolling basis, and this corpus runs through 2026-09-04. why partial FY2026 data? →
Budget trajectory
| Fiscal year | Amount |
|---|---|
| FY24 | $4.51MP-1 TOA · PB2026 |
| FY25 | $0J-book detail · PB2026 |
| FY26 | $0J-book detail · PB2026 |
Decade view
P-1/R-1 workbook TOA basis, shown compact in $B/$M (the workbook records USD thousands); each figure cites its own President's Budget edition
The vertical scale does not start at zero: the baseline sits just below this program’s smallest year, so a low point on this line is not a small amount. Read the shape for direction and the grid below for the figures.
● actuals (line) · ○ enacted · ◇ request — gaps are editions the program is absent from, never interpolated.
| Series | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actuals | $31.6M | $9.80M | $4.51M |
| Enacted | – | $9.85M | $14.7M |
| Request | – | – | $14.7M |
blank = series not published for this year; – = absent from that edition.
Asked vs spent: the PB2024 book requested $14.7M for FY2024; the PB2026 book reported $4.51M as actual total obligation authority — $10.2M below the request. 4.5 − 14.7 = -10.2 USD millions — the compact figures above are rounded for reading.
Program lineage
No predecessor/successor lineage was recorded for this program element — no FY-to-FY transfer into or out of this line was stated in the ingested J-books, and none was inferred from the program structure.
Description
Description — MQ-8 Series
The MQ-8 Unmanned Air System is a Joint Military Intelligence Program. There is no funding requested in FY 2026 based on a Navy decision to divest of current inventory of MQ-8C Air Vehicles (AVs) and associated equipment. The Navy will divest the MQ-8C Fire Scout Uncrewed Aircraft System at the conclusion of FY 2024. Through coordination with Commander Naval Air Forces, Commander Naval Surface Forces, Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Sea Systems Command, operational employment of the MQ-8C will end in Q4 FY2024 and sundown will be completed by Q4 FY2026. The MQ-8C Fire Scout is a vertical take-off and landing, expeditionary, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of day/night ship and shore-based operations. Fire Scout provides an airborne, unmanned, sea-based, persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (ISR-T) asset to the host Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) platform or suitably equipped air capable ships (SEACS) without the reliance on limited joint theater or national assets. The MQ-8C Fire Scout system of systems includes the Mission Control System (MCS), Unmanned Common Aircraft Recovery System (UCARS) (required for shipboard only), and Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) for MQ-8C command & control and payload data transmission. The program procured a total of 68 air vehicles thirty (30) MQ-8Bs and thirty-eight (38) MQ-8Cs. The program sustains Nineteen (19) MQ-8C Fire Scouts with no further contract deliveries. Fifteen (15) MQ-8Cs are located at the Fleet Contractor Field Team (CFT) supported storage and maintenance facility at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Pt. Mugu, CA. Two (2) MQ-8C Fire Scouts are at Webster Field, MD. Two (2) MQ-8Cs were stricken due to attrition. All MQ-8B's have been fully sun downed as of 30 September 2022. The MQ-8 Fire Scout system includes air vehicle(s), payloads (e.g., electro-optical/infra-red/laser designator-range finder, Automated Information System (AIS), voice communications relay, Radar, and other specialty payloads), MCS (with Tactical Control System and Tactical Common Data Link integrated for interoperability), Unmanned Air Vehicle Common Automatic Recovery System (UCARS) for automatic launch and recovery, training systems, associated spares, and support equipment. The quantities and schedules for MCS and UCARS components are based on host ship requirements, while quantities and schedules for air vehicle components are based on operational deployment plans. A limited number of land-based MCS supplement the shipboard systems to support shore-based operations, such as pre-deployment or acceptance functional check flights. These land-based MCS will also support depot-level maintenance/post-maintenance activities. The MQ-8 system supports Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), and/or suitably-equipped air capable ship ISR collection for Navy and urgent operational requirements. Future ships supported include FFG. The MQ-8 Unmanned Air System (Fire Scout) program achieved MS C in June 2017. MQ-8C Unmanned Air System declared Initial Operational Capability in June 2019 for the Endurance Baseline and in June 2022 for the Surface Warfare (SUW) Increment which includes the Radar. The MQ-8B variant of Fire Scout completed Sundown on 30 Sep 2022. Currently, the MQ-8C is the only remaining airframe for the program of record that maintain a limited segment of air vehicles to support the LCS Surface Warfare (SUW) missions and future Mine Counter Measures (MCM) missions.
Justification
Justification — MQ-8 Series
There is no funding requested in FY2026 based on a Navy decision to divest current inventory of MQ-8C Air Vehicles (AVs) and associated equipment. Any prior year hardware procurement contracts in execution will be either terminated or deliveries accepted and kits stored with Air Vehicles at AMARG; whichever is most advantageous to the Government.
Budget line items(workbook-cited)
P-1/R-1 workbook Total Obligation Authority basis (USD thousands) · PB2026.
Exhibit P-1
| Account | Org | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aircraft Procurement, Navy | N | FY24 Actuals | $4.51M |
Budget Details(R-2/P-40 facts)
J-book detail basis (R-2/P-40, USD millions) · PB2026 — a different accounting basis from the P-1/R-1 workbook TOA above; where the two disagree, the reconciliation strip under Budget figures shows both.
Wider than this screen — swipe the table sideways for the remaining fiscal-year columns.
| Project | All Prior Years | FY24 Actuals | FY25 Total | FY26 Base | FY26 Request |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program Element | $203.4M | $4.51M | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Follow the dollar
Appropriation → program element → top high-confidence awards → recipient families → congressional districts.
Follow-the-dollar covers 312 of 1,938 programs — only high-confidence budget→award links are shown. why coverage is partial? →
The diagram illustrates the cited table below — amounts shown in the diagram are transaction sums per award (no citation chips); the per-district obligations in the table cite USAspending queries.
| District | Program obligations |
|---|---|
| CA-50 | $8.68M |
Related awards
Award linkage is shown for 32 of 200 profiled companies — high- and medium-confidence USAspending matches, each row labeled; medium is the weaker evidence. why partial award coverage? →
Rows marked medium rest on evidence weaker than a program-level match, and of more than one kind. An account-based row, where the award drew from the same appropriation account as this program, is an association, not evidence that this program paid for the contract. Where the evidence is instead an FPDS acquisition-program tag or a subaward description, the program is established but which of its budget lines paid is not. An announcement link a recorded review did not leave standing is medium too. Only high rows rest on the contract naming this program with a recorded review upholding it and no recorded rejection or refutation applying.
| Recipient | PIID | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001923F0294 | high |
| BOEING DISTRIBUTION, INC. | N0001920F0110 | medium |
| DART AEROSPACE COMPANY | N6833520F0521 | medium |
| L3 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | N0042120F0642 | medium |
| LEONARDO UK LTD | N0001919F2988 | medium |
| MEGGITT TROY INC | N0038320PM173 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001917C0033 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001917C0036 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001920C0025 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001920F0103 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001920F0233 | medium |
| NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION | N0001920F0457 | medium |
| TELEPHONICS CORPORATION | N0001918F2539 | medium |
| TELEPHONICS CORPORATION | N0001919F4040 | medium |
Contractor concentration
No concentration index is published for this line. This line's high-confidence links do not clear the floor for a published concentration index — at least 3 awards across 2 contractor families holding positive obligations, with positive net linked dollars. An index below that floor is a fact about the sample, not about the market. Whatever further links this line carries are medium-confidence, and what each medium evidence path does and does not establish is set out in the methodology. Both bases are in the downloadable warehouse.
Lobbying mentions
No Senate LDA lobbying filing in the tracked data mentions this program element by code or alias.
Oversight
Department-level designation (not specific to this program)
GAO lists 5 high-risk areas for DOD as a whole. That designation covers the department, not MQ-8 Series. No program-specific GAO finding for this line is in the ingested data. See the DOD oversight record.
Program dossier
No research dossier for this program — dossiers cover 50 of 1,938 programs, the largest fully J-book-detailed lines by FY2026 requested dollars. why no dossier here? →
Primary sources
Open any budget figure for its exact receipt. Verified line items lead with the highlighted government PDF; original spreadsheets download with their budget edition and exhibit in the filename.
Budget totals · TOA sources
FY2026 Department of Defense Budget: Procurement Programs (P-1) · comptroller.war.gov
Exhibit P-1 · O379
Complete workbook · unchanged saved copy. Saves as PB2026_DoD_P-1_Procurement.xlsx.
FY2024 Department of Defense Budget: Procurement Programs (P-1) · comptroller.war.gov
Exhibit P-1 · O384
Complete workbook · unchanged saved copy. Saves as PB2024_DoD_P-1_Procurement.xlsx.
FY2025 Department of Defense Budget: Procurement Programs (P-1) · comptroller.war.gov
Exhibit P-1 · O384
Complete workbook · unchanged saved copy. Saves as PB2025_DoD_P-1_Procurement.xlsx.
Detailed budget justification
The related TOA spreadsheets above use a different accounting basis from R-2/P-40 detail. Their amounts are not assumed to match these detailed sources.