US Army and Sikorsky to test ‘multi-ship’ optionally piloted Black Hawks
Multiple UH-60 optionally piloted Black Hawk flight tests, under DARPA's ALIAS Phase III, are set to begin next year.
Following discussions with the US Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), manufacturer Sikorsky has been given approval to test multiple optionally piloted Black Hawks, in a bid to prove autonomous software can be reliably used to address mission scenarios associated with the army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) programme.
The new flight tests, scheduled to begin in Q4 2020, are part of a recent contract award that falls under Phase III of the DARPA-led Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) programme.
Sikorsky has previously equipped a S-70 Black Hawk with a retrofit kit to make it into an
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