Navy marks first with Fire Scout

When the Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) departs next week for a lengthy deployment to the Western Pacific, it will mark the first deployment of the Navy's manned MH-60R Seahawk helicopter with the unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter. Detachment 1 of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35 (HSM-35) will be ship's aviation detachment and operate one MH-60R and one MQ-8B in the ship's first deployment. HSM-35 of Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif., is the Navy's first squadron to operate both the MH-60R and MQ-8B. The same pilots who fly the Seahawk also are tried to fly the Fire Scout. (Sources: Seapower, 11/12/14, Washington Times, Times of San Diego, 11/14/14) Gulf Coast note: Final assembly of Northrop Grumman Fire Scouts is done in Moss Point, Miss.