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Sikorsky Black Hawk 2070: Pilotless U-Hawk Due to Fly This Year

by Connor Kerr | Oct 9, 2026 | Aviazione militare, Notizia | 0 comments

Somewhere in a Sikorsky hangar in Connecticut sits a Black Hawk with no cockpit. Where the pilots used to sit there are two clamshell doors and a loading ramp. Before the end of 2026, if Sikorsky keeps its word, it will lift off with nobody on board at all.

That aircraft, the S-70UAS U-Hawk, is the headline act of what Sikorsky now calls its “Black Hawk 2070” effort: a bundle of autonomy, new engines, more fuel, a new nose and drone-launching kit meant to keep the UH-60 useful for another half-century. The company laid it out in a Sikorsky-sponsored branded-content feature published by TWZ on 8 October.

The date in the name is not a typo. Many of the helicopters in service, and the ones still coming off the Stratford line, are expected to fly until 2070, almost a century after the first prototype took off in October 1974.

Informazioni rapide

Strategy: “Black Hawk 2070”, Sikorsky’s umbrella for UH-60 modernisation, set out in a sponsored TWZ feature, 8 October 2026

U-Hawk (S-70UAS): Uncrewed conversion of a used UH-60L, unveiled at AUSA on 13 October 2025; first flight planned for 2026

U-Hawk cargo: 25% more cabin space than a UH-60L, four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers instead of two, 9,000 lb on the hook

U-Hawk endurance (Sikorsky figures): Self-deploy over 1,600 nm or loiter up to 14 hours

UH-60MX: First full-authority fly-by-wire, optionally piloted UH-60 in the Army fleet, delivered March 2026

New engine: GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engine, up to 50% more shaft power than the T700; first flight on a UH-60M in May 2025

Other upgrades: Digital backbone, modular nose, main fuel cell enlarged by 30%, launched-effect drone control

A Black Hawk without a front end

Sikorsky unveiled the U-Hawk at the Association of the US Army show in Washington on 13 October 2025, ten months after starting work. Sikorsky Innovations took a UH-60L, cut away the cockpit and crew stations, fitted actuated clamshell doors and a ramp, and swapped the mechanical flight controls for a low-cost fly-by-wire system running the company’s MATRIX autonomy software.

The result has no pilot and no controls, just an operator with a tablet who sets mission goals while MATRIX plans the route. Sikorsky says the cabin gains 25 per cent more cargo space: enough for four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers instead of two, a HIMARS pod of six rockets, two Naval Strike Missiles, or a small ground robot driven straight up the ramp. The cargo hook still lifts 9,000 pounds.

Sikorsky S-70UAS U-Hawk uncrewed Black Hawk seen from above with clamshell nose doors and ramp open — The U-Hawk from above. The cockpit is gone; the nose is now a pair of clamshell doors and a ramp opening straight into the cabin. Image: Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company

“We developed this prototype from concept to reality in under a year, and the modifications made to transform this crewed Black Hawk into a multi-mission payload UAS can be replicated at scale quickly and affordably.”

Rich Benton — Sikorsky vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin release, 13 October 2025

That was a year ago. In the new feature, Jason Wrigley, Sikorsky’s director of business development for Black Hawk, said the same UH-60L shown at AUSA has since been given its fly-by-wire system and MATRIX integration and is getting its final work in Sikorsky’s innovations hangar in Bridgeport, Connecticut. FlightGlobal and Shephard both reported in the months after the unveiling that Sikorsky was aiming for a 2026 first flight.

“As part of an overall “Black Hawk 2070” modernization effort we’re developing a number of complementary capabilities, including our U-Hawk uncrewed cargo variant, which we plan to fly later this year.”

Jason Wrigley — Director of business development for Black Hawk, Sikorsky, speaking to TWZ in a Sikorsky-sponsored feature, 8 October 2026

The business pitch is as interesting as the aircraft. Wrigley said Black Hawk models now being divested by their operators are ideal candidates for conversion, a cheaper route to an uncrewed heavy-lift drone than designing one from scratch.

Lockheed Martin’s official introduction of the S-70UAS U-Hawk, showing the clamshell nose, ramp and tablet control.

One pilot, two pilots, or none

The U-Hawk is the extreme end of a broader autonomy push. In March the Army took delivery of the UH-60MX, a UH-60M rebuilt with full-authority fly-by-wire controls and MATRIX, the first optionally piloted Black Hawk in its fleet. The Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command is using it to work out tactics, techniques and procedures for flying with fewer crew, or with none. Wrigley told TWZ that Sikorsky has since been contracted to deliver three more.

US Army UH-60MX optionally piloted Black Hawk in flight over winter trees — The UH-60MX, the Army’s first optionally piloted Black Hawk, delivered in March 2026 for autonomy testing. Image: Sikorsky, via TWZ

MATRIX kits have now been fitted to all three Army Black Hawk models, the UH-60A, UH-60L and UH-60M. Sikorsky’s line is that autonomy will not so much replace pilots as take away the workload that kills them. Joshua Powers, a 22-year Army Black Hawk pilot now in Sikorsky business development, put it in terms anyone who has landed in a brownout will recognise.

“Flying at night and seeing the tracer fire coming up at you, things like that, I honestly feel that’s not the big threat. It’s when you’re going to land and there’s just a big dust cloud.”

Joshua Powers — Former Army Black Hawk pilot, Sikorsky business development, speaking to TWZ in a Sikorsky-sponsored feature, 8 October 2026

The engines and the plumbing

None of the payload ambitions work without more power. The GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engine delivers up to 50 per cent more shaft power than the T700 family the Black Hawk has used since the 1970s, with better fuel consumption. A UH-60M with twin T901s first flew in May 2025, and Lockheed Martin says the test aircraft has since reached 17,000 feet. Wrigley expects the Milestone C production decision for the engine within the next couple of years.

UH-60M Black Hawk test aircraft fitted with GE T901 Improved Turbine Engines on the ramp — A UH-60M fitted with twin GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engines, which give the Black Hawk up to half as much power again. Image: Sikorsky, via TWZ

Behind the engines comes a main fuel cell enlarged by 30 per cent without eating into the cabin, which Sikorsky says adds about 100 nautical miles of range while keeping room for 11 troops. Then a “digital backbone” supplying power, data, networking and cooling through open-architecture interfaces, and a modular nose that Sikorsky says more than doubles the internal volume of the original, with an integrated mount for sensor pods.

Everything is being designed to come off the production line in new aircraft and to be retrofitted as kits to helicopters already in service.

A mothership for launched effects

The upgrade with the most tactical consequence is the one that turns a utility helicopter into a drone carrier. The Army has been firing small air-launched drones, known as launched effects, from Black Hawks for several years. In July 2026, during Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, a UH-60M fired a Launched Effect-Medium Range from the government-developed LEDGR dispenser.

US Army UH-60M Black Hawk firing a Launched Effect-Medium Range drone over the desert at Fort Irwin — A Launched Effect-Medium Range leaves the LEDGR dispenser on a UH-60M during Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, California, 20 July 2026. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Dane Howard / DVIDS

Sikorsky wants to go further, from a few drones on stub wings to a cabin “quiver” holding dozens. At the U-Hawk launch, a Sikorsky official told FlightGlobal the aircraft could hold 24 to 50 launched effects. A crewed Black Hawk would then stand off and act as the airborne command node while the drones scout, jam or strike ahead of it.

All of this is pitched as the partner to the Army’s new MV-75 tiltrotor, not a rival. The MV-75 brings long range and speed; the Black Hawk 2070 package keeps the fleet the Army already owns relevant in contested airspace and on homeland missions such as disaster relief.

Sikorsky and DARPA’s optionally piloted Black Hawk flying logistics and rescue missions with nobody on board: the MATRIX autonomy that now underpins the U-Hawk.

It is worth remembering who is telling this story. The Black Hawk 2070 vision comes from the manufacturer, through a feature it sponsored, and the Army has not committed to most of it. But the pieces are real hardware: a UH-60MX in Army hands, a T901 in flight test, and a cockpit-less Black Hawk waiting in Bridgeport. The first time it lifts off empty, the 52-year-old design will have outlived the idea that it needs a pilot.

Sources: TWZ sponsored feature by Jamie Hunter, 8 October 2026 (branded content from Sikorsky); Lockheed Martin release on the U-Hawk, 13 October 2025; Lockheed Martin release on the UH-60MX, 23 March 2026; Lockheed Martin feature “Black Hawk Next”, 4 May 2026; DefenseScoop, 20 March 2026; FlightGlobal, 13 October 2025 and 10 March 2026; Shephard, 25 November 2025; U.S. Army/DVIDS imagery from Project Convergence Capstone 6; Wikipedia, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.

Domande frequenti

What is Sikorsky’s Black Hawk 2070 strategy?

Black Hawk 2070 is Sikorsky’s name for a modernisation effort meant to keep UH-60 Black Hawks useful until around 2070. It combines MATRIX autonomy, the uncrewed U-Hawk, GE T901 engines, a larger main fuel cell, a digital backbone, a modular nose and the ability to carry and control launched-effect drones.

What is the Sikorsky U-Hawk?

The S-70UAS U-Hawk is an uncrewed conversion of a UH-60L Black Hawk unveiled at AUSA in October 2025. Sikorsky removed the cockpit and fitted clamshell nose doors and a ramp, giving 25 per cent more cargo space. A fly-by-wire system and MATRIX autonomy fly the aircraft, commanded by an operator with a tablet.

When will the U-Hawk make its first flight?

Sikorsky plans the U-Hawk’s first flight for later in 2026. In October 2026 the company said the converted UH-60L had received fly-by-wire controls and MATRIX autonomy and was getting final work in its innovations hangar in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The target has been 2026 since the aircraft was unveiled in October 2025.

What can the U-Hawk carry?

Sikorsky says the U-Hawk can carry four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers instead of two, a HIMARS pod of six rockets, two Naval Strike Missiles, or a small ground vehicle driven up its ramp. It keeps the 9,000 lb cargo hook and can self-deploy over 1,600 nautical miles or loiter for up to 14 hours.

What is the UH-60MX Black Hawk?

The UH-60MX is a UH-60M Black Hawk rebuilt with full-authority fly-by-wire controls and Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system. Delivered in March 2026, it is the first optionally piloted Black Hawk in the US Army fleet, used by Army testers to develop tactics and procedures for flying with two, one or no pilots.

How much more power does the T901 engine give the Black Hawk?

The GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engine provides up to 50 per cent more shaft power than the T700 engines in today’s Black Hawks, with better fuel efficiency. A UH-60M with twin T901s first flew in May 2025 and has since reached 17,000 feet in flight testing, according to Lockheed Martin.