- The US Army is working on improving its Black Hawk helicopters with new technology.
- It is partnering with Skyryse to make aircraft easier to fly, with or without a pilot.
- There have been other efforts to deliver autonomous Black Hawk capabilities.
The US Army is partnering with aerospace company Skyryse on tech solutions that could be used to make its workhorse Black Hawk helicopters easier to fly, with or without a pilot.
It’s part of an effort to increase the safety and effectiveness of aircraft like the Black Hawk. This helicopter is heavily used but has also been involved in deadly accidents. Increased autonomy and ease of use could reduce those risks for the numerous operators worldwide using these aircraft.
Skyryse and the Army announced the plan earlier this week. It focuses on Skyryse’s signature SkyOS program, which the company described as the world’s first universal flight operating system.
The partnership will “develop solutions to reduce time to train for pilots, increase interoperability between aircraft, and deliver optionally-piloted capability which could be applied” to the Army’s 2,400 Black Hawks and other aircraft, Skyryse said.
The pilotless element of this cooperation follows previous efforts exploring autonomous Black Hawk flight options.
One of the stated goals of the partnership between the Army and Skyryse is to make the Black Hawk safer and simpler to fly while maintaining its mission flexibility. The Black Hawk has long been a premiere platform for the US military, as well as global militaries, seeing combat across the world.
Black Hawk helicopters have been used in a range of locations, including Iraq and Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the war in Ukraine, and other places and have supported a variety of missions.
Highly modified Black Hawks were, for instance, used during the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011. It first entered service in 1978 and has been upgraded several times.
The Black Hawk, which comes in several variants, is operated by three dozen countries and has been used by the US Army for over 40 years. It is known for its versatility, conducting air assaults, transporting troops and supplies, evacuating injured soldiers, and serving as a command and control center.
But there have been safety concerns about the aircraft after decades of crashes and malfunctions. In 2023, US Army data reviewed by Military.com revealed 60 deaths had occurred in Black Hawk-related training incidents. And there have been many operational accidents as well.
Through the new partnership, Skyryse and the Army aim to use SkyOS to simplify pilot operations, improve safety features, employ autonomy, and explore the ability to fly with or without a pilot.
Skyryse and the US Army did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on the cooperation.
Dr. Mark Groden, CEO of Skyryse, said in a statement on the partnership that “by combining the Army’s operational expertise with Skyryse’s leadership in rotorcraft flight controls and automation, we have a unique opportunity to make flying simple and safe enough that any serviceperson can fly any aircraft.”
Autonomy efforts involving the Black Hawk date back a decade, when the Army successfully tested an uncrewed Black Hawk picking up and delivering an autonomous amphibious all-terrain vehicle. More recent examples in this space include a demonstration in October 2022 of a Black Hawk flying autonomously to perform internal and external cargo resupply missions, as well as rescue operations.
And in October 2024, the Army and aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company that produces the Black Hawk and other helicopter models, showed how the latter’s MATRIX autonomy system can employ a Black Hawk to receive remote mission commands in real-time and then carry out said operations without remote control.
Two months later, in December, Lockheed announced that Sikorsky had been selected by the Marines to showcase the autonomous capabilities of the Black Hawk helicopter in demonstrations intended to show “how autonomous aircraft can keep future Marine forces supplied, whether operating from Navy ships or expeditionary bases ashore.”
