Black Hawk drone with clamshell nose unveiled by Sikorsky

Sikorsky transformed a Black Hawk helicopter into an unmanned aircraft system.

Soldiers can control the new U-Hawk, or S-70UAS with a tablet and the aircraft’s MATRIX autonomous system generates the flight plan and navigation. The company envisions the helicopter, which has eliminated the cockpit area, to be used for sustainment missions with the extra space or be part of maneuver operations by carrying swarms of drones. The new design features clamshell doors and ramp where combat vehicles could be rolled on and off, in place of a forward cockpit.

The new aircraft was announced and shown off Monday at the Association of the U.S Army annual conference in Washington D.C. 

“You could imagine this aircraft conducting collaborative combat aircraft operations as a loyal wing man with a crewed aircraft,” Ramsey Bentley, director of advanced concepts and innovations at Sikorsky, told reporters Monday. “It’s flying in ahead of the soldiers as it comes into the area of operations. It dispenses launched effects. Command of those launched effects are turned over to the soldiers coming in on the next aircraft.”

The U-Hawk has 25% more cargo space than a UH-60L Black Hawk and can carry longer cargo like missiles and uncrewed ground vehicles, according to a company release.

A S-70UAS U-Hawk, with its forward clam shell doors open. Photo courtesy Sikorsky

The aircraft is being tested at Yuma Proving Grounds. Bentley said they’ve had both privates and senior leaders fly the U-Hawk.

“We give them the tablet, give them a couple minutes, and then they’re like, leave me alone. I got it,” Bentley said. “We’ve done external load operations, internal load operations. We’ve done personnel recovery operations, all with a soldier at the tablet.”

Sikorsky has modified pre-existing UH-60 Lima versions of Black Hawk helicopters and is open to modifying older aircraft to keep costs down.

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The autonomy software can control the helicopter’s start up, shut down and flight procedures, like engine checks. The operator assigns the helicopter a task like reconnaissance, external or internal load operations.

“You tell the aircraft where you want it to go, then the aircraft executes that mission. The aircraft has sensors and autonomy on board that allows it to see and avoid obstacles. We can integrate threat avoidance with everything else,” Bentley said. “Once you give it the mission task, it even has the capability to pick out emergency landing zones and do all of the emergency procedures just like a human.”

Sikorsky is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.