Helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky demonstrates to the US Marine Corps (USMC, -> current news about the US armed forces) the performance of its MATRIX flight autonomy system. In the coming year mission-relevant flights with Sikorsky’s optionally manned UH-60 Black Hawk demonstrate how autonomous aircraft can supply and support US Marine Corps soldiers in combat zones.
“MATRIX autonomous aircraft can safely and reliably perform a variety of complex missions, including cargo transport, without people on board,” said Rich Benton, vice president of Sikorsky. “Together with the Marine Corps, we will explore how an autonomy-based fleet of unmanned aerial systems, rotary and fixed-wing aircraft can support the armed forces with precision resupply operations during intense operations.”
The USMC wants to demonstrate how autonomous aircraft can supply armed forces – whether from ships or from expeditionary bases on land. Marines will also interact with the autonomous Sikorsky helicopters via a tablet computer to make mission changes flexibly before or after take-off.
Platform-independent autonomy system
Sikorsky Innovations, the rapid development and prototyping unit, has already demonstrated the mission-critical capabilities of the MATRIX system in both military and commercial operational environments on a variety of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.
Originally developed to increase flight safety for manned helicopters, the system was further developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Alias program. Advanced features include assisted flight handling for two-pilot operation, a virtual co-pilot for single-pilot operation or fully autonomous flight without a pilot.
MATRIX autonomy demonstrations
As recently as October 2024, at the AUSA (Association of the United States Army) trade show in Washington, D.C, Sikorsky and DARPA jointly demonstrated autonomous flights of the optionally manned Black Hawk helicopter in front of representatives of the US Department of Defense. They were able to easily transmit mission objectives to the helicopter while some 500 kilometers away, at Sikorsky’s headquarters in Connecticut, the aircraft took off autonomously, hovered and landed successfully after a flight around the airfield.
These recent demonstrations build on Project Convergence 2022 autonomous logistics flights, where Sikorsky and DARPA successfully demonstrated to the US Armyhow the optionally manned Black Hawk helicopter can safely and reliably perform cargo transportation missions – without people on board.
Here for more reports about Sikorsky and here to further reports on the US armed forces.
