Abstract: The search efficiency of a sea target helicopter can be studied based on the searching method and search width of the optical recon pod of the helicopter. According to the characteristic performance of the optical recon pod and helicopter, two basic methods of searching and covering square are proposed for the helicopter to search the sea target. According to the developed search covering square, the commander can determine how to configure the recourses to attain the optimal efficiency. In addition, the processing method for image stitching for the scanned search area is introduced to identify the target of interest in the easy search area.