The unmanned helicopter, part of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22, logged its 600th deployed flight hour March 31. This record exceeds the previous Fire Scout deployment milestone by 100 hours and will likely climb higher with nearly two months remaining on the frigate’s Mediterranean deployment.
This is the fifth sea-based deployment for the MQ-8B. Fire Scout routinely flies 17 hours per day, while providing a 12-hour real-time Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) orbit to combatant commanders.
USS Bradley received communication upgrades allowing the aircraft’s Full Motion Video (FMV) camera feed to be distributed to the ship’s Combat Information Center (CIC) and to commanders at military installations throughout the world.
“The teams of USS Bradley and HSC-22 have taken Fire Scout and maritime ISR to a new level,” said Capt. Patrick Smith, Fire Scout program manager at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. “They tackled multiple sparing, integration and operational issues. Their perseverance demonstrated the significance of maritime based ISR. Fire Scout continues to be in great demand and is answering the call globally via our shipboard deployments.”
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