The iconic Black Hawk helicopter made by Sikorsky is getting a high-tech upgrade after a fully autonomous, uncrewed variant known as the U-Hawk was revealed this week.
The U-Hawk helicopter went from concept to reality in ten months and is on track for its first flight in 2026. It debuted with a display at the annual Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C.
Sikorsky, which is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, refers to the helicopter as the S-70 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), or U-Hawk for short. The unmanned variant increases the helicopter’s cargo capacity, while also increasing its availability due to the lack of a crew who needs downtime.
“The Black Hawk is an iconic capability known worldwide, and it’s not just in the military role that we see this aircraft,” Erskine “Ramsey” Bentley, director of strategic requirements at Sikorsky, told FOX Business in an interview.
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Sikorsky began developing the autonomous capability for Black Hawk helicopters in concert with DARPA’s ALIAS program to add a drop-in, removable system that can automate systems that reduce the need for onboard aircrew — a process which led to the development of Sikorsky’s MATRIX technology.
At last year’s AUSA, Sikorsky demonstrated that capability and flew a modified Black hawk autonomously from over 300 miles away, which spurred interest from the military and other potential commercial clients. Late last year, Sikorsky bought a UH-60L Black Hawk from the Army in December and began revamping it to the U-Hawk concept, a process which took 10 months.
“We decided we would go with clamshell doors, so we had the two upper doors that open up, and then the floor actually forms the ramp that drops down,” Bentley explained. “That allows us to literally drive UGVs, all-terrain vehicles, motorbikes, whatever up into the aircraft.”
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Bentley said the U-Hawk can carry over 7,000 pounds internally, while Sikorsky kept the cargo hook on the bottom of the aircraft which is rated at 9,000 pounds. Bentley said they believe the aircraft is outfitted for 10,000 pounds combined between internal and external loads, given the maximum gross weight of the aircraft.
The U-Hawk is designed to conduct contested logistics missions, which involve flying into hostile airspace to deliver needed supplies to military personnel in harm’s way.
The company is developing air launched effects, which involve shooting smaller drones out of onboard canisters so that they can be deployed in the field, doing roles like threat detection and counter-drone capabilities as well as kinetic or non-kinetic effects. Those can be deployed on the U-Hawk as well as manned Black Hawks, other aircraft, vehicles, or ships.
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Other potential use cases for the U-Hawk that Sikorsky has identified include fighting wildfires. Bentley said the company has teamed up with Rain, a California-based autonomous wildfire technology firm, to deploy the MATRIX technology to crewed and uncrewed aircraft to track wildfires, develop suppression plans and coordinate water drops.
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He also said the U-Hawk’s cargo capacity and ability to operate without a crew could prove useful in humanitarian support operations, delivering medical supplies or other items needed for emergency sustainment in disaster-stricken areas.
Bentley said that because the U-Hawk is unmanned, it increases the ability to utilize the aircraft about twice as much over a 24-hour period than if it were using human crews.
In response to interest from the Army and other Pentagon departments, as well as international customers, Bentley said that Sikorsky is planning to ramp up its production line for the U-Hawk in 2026 with deliveries to begin in 2027.
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