![]() About 30 minutes into the flight, the helicopter was ordered to divert to a new location by a ground operator using a secure radio and tablet. The Black Hawk was then fitted with a 40-ft (12 m) sling holding an external load of 2,600 lb (1,179 kg) and took off. MATRIX then took complete control of the helicopter and flew 83 miles (136 km) at 100 kn (115 mph, 185 km/h) while hugging the valley terrain at an altitude of 200 ft (60 m) to avoid detection. Two pilots flew the Black Hawk to the starting point, landed, switched on the MATRIX system, and exited. In addition, the helicopter can respond appropriately to emergency situations without human supervision.ĭuring the demonstrations, the Black Hawk was loaded with a cargo of 400 units of real and simulated human blood weighing 500 lb (228 kg). These turned the Black Hawk into a completely automated aircraft that can take over key pre-flight procedures, including power, secondary control, wind checks, as well as the ability to control elements of adaptive flying like take off and landing. The recent demonstration used a standard UH-60A Black Hawk that was retrofitted by Sikorsky and DARPA with DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) incorporating Sikorsky's MATRIX autonomy technology. Not only can they be used for missions that would be too dangerous for a human crew, but they can also free up pilots from routine supply missions and they can self-deploy as needed. This isn't surprising, given that autonomous aircraft provide many advantages while maintaining the capabilities of a crewed helicopter. It also emphasizes the Army's insistence that any future combat helicopters like the Black Hawk must be pilot-optional or it's not interested. The general purpose of the exercise was to evaluate potential future military technologies. The recent series of autonomous flight tests were conducted on October 12, 14, and 18 at the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona as part of the Army's Project Convergence 2022 (PC22) experiment in which US, British, and Australian service personnel evaluated 300 technologies, including long-range weapons, unmanned aerial systems, autonomous fighting vehicles, and next-generation sensors. The line between crewed and uncrewed aircraft has blurred even more after a Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter carried out a demonstration cargo mission as well as a medical "emergency rescue" entirely on its own without anyone aboard or human guidance. ![]()
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