Overview
- After less than an hour of training, a U.S. Army National Guard sergeant first class planned, commanded, and executed OPV Black Hawk missions using a tablet.
- The soldier directed a logistics sortie to a point 70 nautical miles away and oversaw multiple precision parachute supply drops under operational conditions.
- Additional demonstrations included the aircraft’s first autonomous airborne hookup for an external load, enabling soldiers to attach a 2,900‑pound water tank while the helicopter held a stable hover.
- The OPV Black Hawk completed six autonomous hovering hookups to move HIMARS launch tubes and performed a simulated medical evacuation with a tail‑to‑tail patient transfer to a piloted Black Hawk.
- Reporting describes this as the first time a warfighter—not a test pilot or engineer—controlled the OPV Black Hawk, though it remains unclear whether safety pilots were aboard during parts of the exercise.