U-Hawk autonomous Black Hawk helicopter debuts, first flight set for 2026

Iconography Black Hawk helicopter Sikorsky has received a high-tech upgrade after unveiling a fully autonomous, unmanned version known as the U-Hawk this week.

The U-Hawk helicopter went from concept to reality in ten months and is on track to make its maiden flight in 2026. It made its debut at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual conference in Washington, DC.

Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed MartinHe refers to the helicopter as the S-70 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), or U-Hawk for short. The unmanned variant increases the cargo capacity of the helicopter, while also increasing its availability due to no crew needing to stop working.

“The Black Hawk is an iconic capability known around the world, and it’s not just in the military role that we see this aircraft in,” Erskine “Ramsay” Bentley, director of strategic requirements at Sikorsky, told FOX Business in an interview.

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Sikorsky began developing autonomous capability for its Black Hawk helicopters in coordination with DARPA’s ALIAS program to add a removable system that can automate systems that reduce the need for on-board flight crews – a process that led to the development of Sikorsky’s MATRIX technology.

At AUSA last year, Sikorsky demonstrated this capability and flew a modified Black Hawk autonomously from more than 300 miles away, sparking interest from the military and other potential commercial customers. Late last year, Sikorsky purchased the UH-60L Black Hawk from the Army in December and began refurbishing it into U-hook conceptA process that took 10 months.

“We decided to go with shell doors, so we had the two upper doors that open, and then the floor actually forms the slope that goes down,” Bentley explained. “This allows us to fly unmanned vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and anything else inside the aircraft.”

A Sikorsky S-70 UAS “U-Hawk” helicopter with its cargo hatch open. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky/Fox News)

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Bentley said the U-Hawk can carry more than 7,000 pounds internally, while Sikorsky kept the 9,000-pound cargo hook on the bottom of the plane. Bentley said they believe the plane is equipped to handle 10,000 pounds combined between interior and exterior loads, given the plane’s maximum gross weight.

The U-Hawk is designed for contested logistics missions, which involve flying into hostile airspace to deliver needed supplies to military personnel in harm’s way.

The company is developing air launch effects, which involve launching smaller drones from onboard packages so they can be deployed in the field, performing roles such as Threat detection Counter-drone capabilities in addition to kinetic or non-kinetic effects. It can be deployed on U-Hawk aircraft as well as manned Black Hawks, other aircraft, vehicles or ships.

Other potential use cases for the U-Hawk identified by Sikorsky include: Fighting forest fires. Bentley said the company has teamed up with Rain, a California-based independent wildfire technology company, to deploy MATRIX technology on manned and unmanned aircraft to track wildfires, develop suppression plans and coordinate water drops.

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He also said the U-Hawk’s cargo capacity and ability to operate without a crew could come in handy Humanitarian support Operations, delivery of medical supplies or other materials needed for emergency sustainment in disaster areas.

Two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the New Jersey Army National Guard collect water to drop on a wildfire in Lacey Township, New Jersey, on April 24, 2025. (Adam Gray/Getty Images/Getty Images)

Because the U-Hawk is unmanned, it increases the aircraft’s usability by about twice as much as if it were using human crews 24 hours a day, Bentley said.

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In response to interest from the Army and other Pentagon departments, as well as international customers, Bentley said Sikorsky plans to increase its U-Hawk production line in 2026 with deliveries beginning in 2027.