Non-Pilot U.S. Army Sergeant Flies Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter in Real-World Operation
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A U.S. Army National Guard sergeant became the first non-aviator to execute real missions with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter using Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system. The milestone shows how near-term autonomy could transform logistics, medevac, and resupply missions across U.S. and allied formations.
Lockheed Martin revealed on October 30, 2025, that a U.S. Army National Guard sergeant became the first non-aviator to plan and execute real missions with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk using Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy and a handheld tablet. During Northern Strike 25 2 in Michigan, the soldier completed a 70 nautical mile resupply, directed precision airdrops from racetrack patterns over Lake Huron, supervised an airborne external hookup of a 2,900-pound water tank, moved HIMARS launch tubes via six autonomous sling pickups, and oversaw a simulated MEDEVAC with a tail-to-tail transfer at an austere site. Training time was under an hour, and no test pilots or engineers were in the loop.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
A U.S. Army soldier remotely pilots an autonomous Black Hawk using Sikorsky’s MATRIX system during Northern Strike 25-2, completing resupply, sling load, and MEDEVAC missions from a tablet (Picture source: Lockheed Martin).
Northern Strike provided the right laboratory for contested logistics at scale. Michigan’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs framed the August 2 to 16 exercise as a joint, multinational event emphasizing CJADC2, CEMA, counter UAS and expeditionary sustainment, with more than 7,500 participants training across the National All Domain Warfighting Center, including Lake Huron maritime operations. Planners explicitly cited the growing danger of cruise missiles and small drones, and Northern Strike integrated personnel recovery trials with the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Putting an OPV Black Hawk into that scenario validated repeatable autonomous logistics profiles under real training friction.
What makes this different is who was in charge. The operator was a soldier, not an aviator, flying a Black Hawk from a tablet. MATRIX acted as a digital copilot that launched, routed, held rock steady hovers for fast hook-ups, executed precision airdrops in a maritime environment, and then recovered a simulated casualty with a crewed aircraft waiting nearby. Lockheed Martin’s statement underscores the intent, noting MATRIX can reduce workload when crews are aboard or complete a resupply without humans on board. In practical terms, commanders gain a large, survivable “drone” for resupply and recovery that keeps aircrews out of threat rings where attritable UAS, loitering munitions, and short-range air defenses are now routine.
The event is also a clean fit with the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift modernization path, which seeks crew optional aviation to sustain tempo in multi-domain operations while improving survivability. The autonomy lineage is clear. Sikorsky unveiled MATRIX in 2013 to bring supervised autonomy to VTOL aircraft operating at low altitude around obstacles, ship decks and in brownout conditions. In February 2022, DARPA’s ALIAS program and Sikorsky flew a UH-60A at Fort Campbell with no one on board, proving uninhabited flight on a full-size utility helicopter. In 2024, DARPA funded the integration of MATRIX on a DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center UH-60 M testbed to expand Army experimentation. Northern Strike 25 2 is the next rung on that ladder, but with a warfighter holding the tablet instead of engineers.
For U.S. formations and future S-70 customers, the capabilities on display are concrete. Autonomy enables precise racetrack patterns for airdrop, stable hands-free hovers for rapid sling hookups, automated route replanning, and safer landings in degraded visual environments. It also extends endurance by removing crew duty cycle limits on the riskiest legs. In a theater saturated with aerial threats, a distanced piloted helicopter that self-navigates, self-hovers, and repeats logistics profiles with consistency is both a force protection advantage and a tempo multiplier. That is why turning an untrained soldier into a safe helicopter mission commander via tablet is a genuine revolution for rotary wing operations.
International relevance is immediate: Sikorsky lists more than 4,000 Black Hawks flying in 36 countries, and the S-70 family remains the world’s most prolific utility platform. MATRIX, delivered as a workload-reducing assistant when crews are aboard and a full autonomy core when no one is, offers operators a cost-effective modernization path that does not require replacing airframes. For NATO users facing the same drone and missile threat envelope, crew optional logistics from a familiar airframe can be fielded faster than clean sheet fleets.
Industry is already moving beyond OPV to purpose-built cargo UAS. At AUSA 2025, Sikorsky revealed the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a Black Hawk transformed into a dedicated uncrewed aircraft by removing the cockpit and adding actuated clamshell doors and a loading ramp, yielding a larger usable cargo bay while retaining external lift. Operators fly it by tablet from start to shutdown using the same autonomy core. That reveal, two weeks before Northern Strike’s press release, signals a deliberate roadmap from crew-assisted to crew-optional to cockpitless logistics at a relevant scale.
DEVCOM AvMC’s UH-60 M fly-by-wire testbed is already slated to receive MATRIX under a DARPA award, giving the service a government-owned platform for tactics development and safety cases. Coupled with Northern Strike’s soldier-led missions, the Army can now move from demonstration to doctrine, writing procedures for autonomous resupply, external lift, and casualty evacuation that preserve pilot options while protecting crews when risk spikes.
Finally, Northern Strike’s realism makes the achievement credible. The aircraft launched from a Coast Guard vessel, flew over water, executed precision drops at two altitudes, held steady in airborne hover for an autonomous external hookup, moved heavy ordnance components between zones, and completed a patient transfer at an unimproved site. Those mission blocks align with contested sustainment tasks planners are prioritizing as counter-UAS, cruise missiles, and electronic attack expand. It is hard to overstate the value of a heavy lift aircraft that behaves like a drone when needed, yet returns to crewed utility for complex operations.
Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
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A U.S. Army National Guard sergeant became the first non-aviator to execute real missions with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter using Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system. The milestone shows how near-term autonomy could transform logistics, medevac, and resupply missions across U.S. and allied formations.
Lockheed Martin revealed on October 30, 2025, that a U.S. Army National Guard sergeant became the first non-aviator to plan and execute real missions with an Optionally Piloted Black Hawk using Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy and a handheld tablet. During Northern Strike 25 2 in Michigan, the soldier completed a 70 nautical mile resupply, directed precision airdrops from racetrack patterns over Lake Huron, supervised an airborne external hookup of a 2,900-pound water tank, moved HIMARS launch tubes via six autonomous sling pickups, and oversaw a simulated MEDEVAC with a tail-to-tail transfer at an austere site. Training time was under an hour, and no test pilots or engineers were in the loop.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
A U.S. Army soldier remotely pilots an autonomous Black Hawk using Sikorsky’s MATRIX system during Northern Strike 25-2, completing resupply, sling load, and MEDEVAC missions from a tablet (Picture source: Lockheed Martin).
Northern Strike provided the right laboratory for contested logistics at scale. Michigan’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs framed the August 2 to 16 exercise as a joint, multinational event emphasizing CJADC2, CEMA, counter UAS and expeditionary sustainment, with more than 7,500 participants training across the National All Domain Warfighting Center, including Lake Huron maritime operations. Planners explicitly cited the growing danger of cruise missiles and small drones, and Northern Strike integrated personnel recovery trials with the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Putting an OPV Black Hawk into that scenario validated repeatable autonomous logistics profiles under real training friction.
What makes this different is who was in charge. The operator was a soldier, not an aviator, flying a Black Hawk from a tablet. MATRIX acted as a digital copilot that launched, routed, held rock steady hovers for fast hook-ups, executed precision airdrops in a maritime environment, and then recovered a simulated casualty with a crewed aircraft waiting nearby. Lockheed Martin’s statement underscores the intent, noting MATRIX can reduce workload when crews are aboard or complete a resupply without humans on board. In practical terms, commanders gain a large, survivable “drone” for resupply and recovery that keeps aircrews out of threat rings where attritable UAS, loitering munitions, and short-range air defenses are now routine.
The event is also a clean fit with the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift modernization path, which seeks crew optional aviation to sustain tempo in multi-domain operations while improving survivability. The autonomy lineage is clear. Sikorsky unveiled MATRIX in 2013 to bring supervised autonomy to VTOL aircraft operating at low altitude around obstacles, ship decks and in brownout conditions. In February 2022, DARPA’s ALIAS program and Sikorsky flew a UH-60A at Fort Campbell with no one on board, proving uninhabited flight on a full-size utility helicopter. In 2024, DARPA funded the integration of MATRIX on a DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center UH-60 M testbed to expand Army experimentation. Northern Strike 25 2 is the next rung on that ladder, but with a warfighter holding the tablet instead of engineers.
For U.S. formations and future S-70 customers, the capabilities on display are concrete. Autonomy enables precise racetrack patterns for airdrop, stable hands-free hovers for rapid sling hookups, automated route replanning, and safer landings in degraded visual environments. It also extends endurance by removing crew duty cycle limits on the riskiest legs. In a theater saturated with aerial threats, a distanced piloted helicopter that self-navigates, self-hovers, and repeats logistics profiles with consistency is both a force protection advantage and a tempo multiplier. That is why turning an untrained soldier into a safe helicopter mission commander via tablet is a genuine revolution for rotary wing operations.
International relevance is immediate: Sikorsky lists more than 4,000 Black Hawks flying in 36 countries, and the S-70 family remains the world’s most prolific utility platform. MATRIX, delivered as a workload-reducing assistant when crews are aboard and a full autonomy core when no one is, offers operators a cost-effective modernization path that does not require replacing airframes. For NATO users facing the same drone and missile threat envelope, crew optional logistics from a familiar airframe can be fielded faster than clean sheet fleets.
Industry is already moving beyond OPV to purpose-built cargo UAS. At AUSA 2025, Sikorsky revealed the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a Black Hawk transformed into a dedicated uncrewed aircraft by removing the cockpit and adding actuated clamshell doors and a loading ramp, yielding a larger usable cargo bay while retaining external lift. Operators fly it by tablet from start to shutdown using the same autonomy core. That reveal, two weeks before Northern Strike’s press release, signals a deliberate roadmap from crew-assisted to crew-optional to cockpitless logistics at a relevant scale.
DEVCOM AvMC’s UH-60 M fly-by-wire testbed is already slated to receive MATRIX under a DARPA award, giving the service a government-owned platform for tactics development and safety cases. Coupled with Northern Strike’s soldier-led missions, the Army can now move from demonstration to doctrine, writing procedures for autonomous resupply, external lift, and casualty evacuation that preserve pilot options while protecting crews when risk spikes.
Finally, Northern Strike’s realism makes the achievement credible. The aircraft launched from a Coast Guard vessel, flew over water, executed precision drops at two altitudes, held steady in airborne hover for an autonomous external hookup, moved heavy ordnance components between zones, and completed a patient transfer at an unimproved site. Those mission blocks align with contested sustainment tasks planners are prioritizing as counter-UAS, cruise missiles, and electronic attack expand. It is hard to overstate the value of a heavy lift aircraft that behaves like a drone when needed, yet returns to crewed utility for complex operations.
Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
