The U.S. Army’s Black Hawk helicopter is capable of dynamic autonomous operation at a long distance from a control terminal using the MATRIX autonomous control system from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company. It enables receipt of remote mission commands in real-time.
Rather than simply following a planned route, the MATRIX system (see image above) allows for flight reactions to changing combat environmental conditions. MATRIX has been in development for more than 10 years by Sikorsky, working with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The system can provide independent, autonomous operation in reaction to a dynamic combat environment.
Stephanie Hill, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems president and a nonpilot, while attending the October 2024 Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) in Washington, DC, commanded an autonomous Black Hawk helicopter to take off, hover, fly a circuit, and land in Connecticut using a tablet computer to control the aircraft. The helicopter carried several pilots in the cockpit for safety purposes, but it flew and navigated itself without their input.
MATRIX forms the core of DARPA’s Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), developed as an ongoing partnership between Sikorsky and DARPA. According to Rich Benton, Sikorsky vice president and general manager, “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 battlespace, day or night, in all weather conditions.”
Benton added, “Soldiers will rely on Black Hawk helicopters into the 2070s, and modernizing the aircraft today will pay dividends for decades across Army Aviation’s current and future aircraft.”
