Black Hawk swaps cockpit for cargo doors to go fully autonomous

Photo: The U-Hawk has replaced the cockpit with clam-shell doors and a loading ramp. Photo courtesy, Lockheed Martin. Article by David Szondy. New Atlas – October 13, 2025. News release: Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky has taken the next logical step in making a Black Hawk helicopter autonomous by not only installing the gear needed for self-flying, but by yanking out the entire cockpit and replacing it with cargo doors. Making a Black Hawk helicopter autonomous isn’t new. DARPA and Sikorsky have been doing conversions on production versions of the aircraft for years – they’ve even been testing them as firefighting platforms. That’s fine if the goal is to make Black Hawks pilot optional, but how about getting rid of the pilot and the cockpit altogether? […]

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Video: Introducing the S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™ – Lockheed Martin