Forget drones – the US Army just took delivery of a self-flying Black Hawk helicopter
Expendable military drones are so 2025
The US Army just took receipt of what may be the coolest unmanned drone ever flown by the military: A full-sized Black Hawk helicopter.
The optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) Black Hawk H-60Mx was handed off to the US Army at Fort Eustis, Virginia, last week, by DARPA after more than a decade of development under the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program.
The ALIAS program saw Lockheed Martin subsidiary and Black Hawk maker Sikorsky outfit the craft with what it calls the MATRIX system, a flight control and autonomy platform that allows the copter to execute specific instructions for pre-planned autonomous missions or take commands from a ground-based team trained to fly the craft from a tablet.
"This transition is a testament to the power of government and industry partnership to advance technology," ALIAS program manager Stuart Young said of the program's graduation to testing with the Army. "It will allow the Army to build on a solid foundation of technical-risk reduction, enabling them to explore new warfighting concepts and push the boundaries of what's possible in aviation."
The MATRIX system installed in the demonstration Black Hawk has been tested on a number of occasions, most recently at Michigan's Camp Grayling last November. The November tests saw the OPV Black Hawk fly a 70-nautical-mile cargo resupply mission that included precision parachute drops, equipment sling loading, and medical evac trials.
While human pilots were on board for safety, the craft apparently completed all its mission objectives without need for their intervention. The craft has been flown without any humans onboard multiple times going back to 2022, "proving the system could handle an entire mission from pre-flight checks to autonomous landing, including responding to simulated system failures," said DARPA.
Along with handing off the aircraft and its MATRIX kit, DARPA is also handing over a MATRIX software development kit, which the Army said will allow it to modify the system for new sensor technologies and other third-party innovations.
With "foundational research and development complete" on the ALIAS program, according to DARPA, and the OPV Black Hawk now in the hands of the Army, it'll fall to the branch to determine the future of MATRIX, but it appears the Army is gung-ho to get it pressure-tested and deployed.
"The delivery of this first OPV Black Hawk is more than just a hardware handover; it's a tangible step toward a future where technology and soldiers work together in new and powerful ways to ensure mission success," the Army said in a statement.
The next phase of trials will focus on integrating mission-specific sensors and equipment, DARPA said. The aircraft will also serve as the primary testbed for a US Army program seeking scalable autonomy kit that can be installed across its entire Black Hawk fleet and integrated into future aircraft designs. ®