You might remember the iconic helicopter from the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down.”
Over 20 years later, that aircraft improved significantly into an AI Black Hawk.
US military news website DefenseScoop says Lockheed Martin Company Sikorsky will add a “robotic brain” into the flying machine.
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This system will enable the US Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) to test and hone autonomous flight capabilities.
How does the AI Black Hawk work?
Sikorsky wrote in its press release that it will integrate the MATRIX autonomy system into the UH-60M Black Hawk. Then, the aircraft’s designation will be MX.
The MATRIX is the core of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s ALIAS program.
The acronym stands for “Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System.”
The AI system will enable DEVCOM to form and test practical applications for the scalable autonomy system.
Soon, Sikorsky and DARPA’s AI Black Hawk can avoid threats, obstacles and terrain without a human pilot.
They will also develop standards and system specifications with the MATRIX system and a fly-by-wire flight control system.
Rich Benton, Sikorsky’s vice president and general manager, stated:
“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 battle space, day or night in all weather conditions.”
Sikorsky and DARPA have been demonstrating the progress of its AI Black Hawk development since 2022.
Previously, they showed the US Army how the Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter could perform internal and external cargo resupply missions without humans.
In July 2024, Sikorsky and DARPA demonstrated to US military space personnel and senior Department of Defense officials its remote-operated helicopter.
“Soldiers will rely on Black Hawk helicopters into the 2070s,” claimed Benton. “Modernizing the aircraft today will pay dividends for decades across Army Aviation’s current and future aircraft.”