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October 17, 2024

Sikorsky to install remote flight capabilities in new Black Hawk model

Contributed The MX Black Hawk aircraft is to be equipped with the MATRIX autonomy system.
Contributed Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted Black Hawk aircraft demonstrating uninhabited resupply in 2022.
By Harriet Jones

Stratford-based helicopter maker Sikorsky has received a $6 million award from the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) to convert another model of its Black Hawk helicopter into a drone, via an autonomous flight system.

Sikorsky, which is owned by Lockheed Martin, will install its ALIAS/MATRIX flight autonomy system onto the UH-60M Black Hawk, with the aim of exploring a range of new capabilities, including being able to fly the aircraft remotely, with a ground operator giving commands via a tablet computer.

Sikorsky has already tested the autonomy system over hundreds of flight hours on its UH-60A fly-by-wire optionally piloted Black Hawk.

Sikorsky will integrate the MATRIX system into the newly designated MX helicopter in 2025. 

The project will evaluate different sensor systems to perceive and avoid threats and obstacles to flight, including difficult terrain. 

“Autonomy-enabled aircraft will reduce pilot workload, dramatically improve flight safety, and give battle commanders the flexibility to perform complex missions in contested and congested battlespace, day or night in all weather conditions,” Rich Benton, Sikorsky vice president and general manager said in a statement.

“Soldiers will rely on Black Hawk helicopters into the 2070s, and modernizing the aircraft today will pay dividends for decades across Army Aviation’s current and future aircraft.”

The award follows a successful demonstration of the system to U.S. military officials in July of this year.

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