Overview
- In Northern Strike 25-2, a DARPA and Joint Personnel Recovery Agency event, a U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant First Class directed an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk using a handheld tablet.
- After less than an hour of training, the soldier sent the aircraft on a 70‑nautical‑mile mission and executed multiple precision resupply drops without a pilot in the cockpit, according to Sikorsky.
- Sikorsky detailed additional tasks, including tablet-directed racetrack patterns over Lake Huron for precision parachute drops and three cargo delivery modes: internal carry, external sling load, and precision parachute release.
- The aircraft performed an autonomous airborne hookup of a 2,900‑pound water tank and completed six autonomous hovering hookups to move HIMARS launch tubes, followed by a simulated MEDEVAC recovery.
- Powered by Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy, the OPV Black Hawk can operate crewed or uncrewed, and the company says the demonstration points to potential logistics, search-and-rescue, and medical evacuation roles pending further experimentation.