SAN DIEGO -- The newest addition to the military's unmanned aerial arsenal is a pilotless helicopter and, as 10News reporter Bob Lawrence found out, the machine has a San Diego connection and is about to go on active duty.

The latest in military technology is an un-manned helicopter called the Fire Scout. Developed by Northrop-Grumman in San Diego, it is about to go to sea on the war on drugs.

Unmanned aerial vehicles aren't new but what makes this 22-foot-long, 9-foot-high UAV different is that it's a helicopter and it doesn't require a pilot to fly it.

"The mission is pre-programmed into the aircraft and it flies the mission," John VanBrabant of Northrop-Grumman said. "It takes off, flies the mission and lands automatically."

Operators can override the program and change the flight if called for.

The Fire Scout is assembled at a plant in Moss Point, Miss., but critical componant testing is done locally at the facility in Rancho Bernardo.

VanBrabant said, "One of the key concepts behind Fire Scout is that a commander doesn't have to put a large aircraft or pilot in the air to do the same job."

Navy surface ships usually deploy with a detatchment of SH-60 or MH-60 helicopters. What Northrop-Grumman and the Navy intend to find out is if Fire Scout -- which will ultimately be placed on the Navy's newest ship, the LCS, or Littoral Combat Ship -- can do mundane things so pilots don't have to.

"It's that dull mission in the middle of the night where you have to watch a piece of the ocean or a mountain pass where you don't necessarily need an F-18 or a manned helicopter just circling," VanBrabant said.

The Fire Scout can fly 110 miles from a ship and stay circling for five hours while sending back real-time information.

While the Navy's version at the moment isn't armed the Army is looking at taking one into the field that definitely packs a punch.

For now, Fire Scout will be aboard the USS McInerney when it deploys for a counter-drug mission in the Caribbean in about a month.

The deployment in October will be critical for the company. How it performs and what it's able to see and do may determine just how many versions are ordered.