Heavy breathing intensifies as Battlefield 6 players find flyable scout helicopters in Portal
Today saw the launch of Battlefield 6 Season 1, bringing a new map, a battle pass, a store stuffed with cosmetic bundle cognitohazards, and a fresh free-to-play battle royale mode with Redsec—or as fresh as a battle royale mode can be in 2025. But for a specific flavor of Battlefield veteran, the most exciting feature included in the update is a sign tucked away in the Portal editor that a series staple will soon be taking flight once more.
If your personal history with scout helicopters isn't a friendly one, however, this might not be welcome news.
little bird is available on Portal from r/Battlefield
Shortly after today's BF6 patch went live this morning, players fired up its updated Portal editor to see whether there were any juicy new toys to play with that had slipped through the cracks. And Portal didn't disappoint: Those map editing sleuths discovered that it's possible to spawn a fully functional Little Bird scout helicopter on the Operation Firestorm map, indicating an upcoming return for Battlefield's most beloved and/or reviled air vehicle class.
Scout helicopters, often referred to as Little Birds after the AH-6 usable by NATO players, have been a mainstay of modern military Battlefields since BF2. By BF4 and 2042, they'd risen to particular prominence, enjoying extreme airborne maneuverability and a kit of offensive unlocks that could allow capable pilots to outmaneuver and outgun almost any threat they might encounter.
Was it a little absurd to watch attack helicopters get mulched by their miniature cousins? Yes, but that didn't make it any less fun to terrorize entire maps as a hateful little bulb. (Until you annoyed the other team enough that everyone pulled out stinger missiles, anyway.)
It's possible that scout helicopters might not be quite the nuisance in BF6 they were in previous entries. Multiplayer pilots have had to deal with some pretty potent anti-air threats, and a low-flying Little Bird might make easy prey for the fast-flying RPGs that engineers are usually packing.
As for when we might actually see scout helicopters fully implemented in multiplayer, it's currently unclear. While the Portal's pilotable Little Bird seems fairly polished, scout helicopters aren't mentioned anywhere on the full Season 1 roadmap. Until there's an official acknowledgement from EA, we can only guess what Battlefield Studios' scout helicopter plans might be.
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