U.S. Sikorsky Pushes for UH-60L Helicopter Conversions into New Autonomous U-Hawk Configuration
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Sikorsky has turned a surplus UH-60L Black Hawk into the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a cockpit-free autonomous helicopter designed for uncrewed logistics and multi-mission support. The redesign offers larger cargo capacity and MATRIX-powered autonomy, adding new options for U.S. and allied forces planning for contested resupply operations.
During AUSA 2025 in October 2025, Sikorsky converted a surplus UH-60L Black Hawk into the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a fully autonomous helicopter that removes the cockpit and crew stations to create a larger, mission-configurable cargo bay with powered clamshell doors and a ramp, positioning the aircraft as a battle-ready unmanned logistics and multi-mission platform for U.S. and allied forces. Sikorsky now pushed the industrial application: the company aims at customers who already operate Blach Hawk helicopters. The message for them is that they can acquire a brand new unmanned aerial vehicle for less money, instead of keeping a Blach Hawk they wouldn’t possibly need.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Sikorsky’s S-70UAS U-Hawk converts a legacy UH-60L into a fully autonomous heavy-lift aircraft with a redesigned clamshell nose, expanded cargo bay, and tablet-based MATRIC flight control system, enabling unmanned resupply, UGV deployment, and long-range logistics operations in contested environments (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
The U-Hawk starts life as a standard UH-60L, but Sikorsky strips out the cockpit, seats, and traditional instrumented nose section and replaces them with a blunt, actuated clamshell that opens forward to reveal a flat floor cargo hold. This redesign, combined with internal rearrangement of systems, yields roughly 25 percent more usable cabin volume than a conventional Lima model, enough to fit four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers or a compact 4×4 or 6×6 unmanned ground vehicle that can simply drive off the front ramp. Public data indicate payloads on the order of 4,500 kg internally or externally, keeping the aircraft in the same lift class as a crewed Black Hawk while freeing every kilogram of crew weight for cargo.
The heart of the transformation is the flight control architecture. The U-Hawk uses a third-generation fly-by-wire system integrated with Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy, the same technology stack that powered DARPA’s ALIAS program and the first completely uncrewed UH-60A flights at Fort Campbell in 2022. Instead of cyclic and collective, an operator uses a tablet-like control station to task the aircraft. Once the mission profile is loaded, U-Hawk uses onboard sensors, digital maps, and autonomy algorithms to taxi, take off, navigate, avoid obstacles, manage emergencies, and land without direct pilot stick input. Recent demonstrations in the United States have already shown a soldier controlling an autonomous Black Hawk from more than 100 km away, a clear pointer to how U-Hawk will be commanded on future battlefields.
The aircraft is designed for the problem set that now dominates U.S. Army and NATO planning: contested logistics. In Eastern Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East, resupply flights increasingly must cross air defense bubbles, drone-saturated airspace, and GPS-degraded zones. U-Hawk offers commanders a way to push fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, or spare parts into forward landing zones without risking a crew, while keeping the speed, range, and vertical lift profile of a Black Hawk. Lockheed Martin marketing material and industry reporting show concepts where the aircraft delivers palletized loads, deploys containerized launched effects for ISR or strike, or drops an unmanned ground vehicle that can continue the last kilometers autonomously on the ground. In a Ukraine-style artillery war, that means unmanned delivery of rockets and shells to dispersed batteries. In the Pacific, it could mean sustained resupply of small island detachments from ships operating far offshore, fully integrated into the Joint All Domain Command and Control architecture.
The U-Hawk is also a bridge between past and future in U.S. Army aviation. While Future Vertical Lift promises entirely new airframes in the next decade, the Army and international customers still depend on fleets of UH-60A and UH-60L aircraft that are structurally sound but increasingly obsolescent as frontline troop carriers. Sikorsky has already demonstrated optionally piloted Black Hawks and MATRIX retrofits on legacy platforms under ALIAS, showing that existing airframes can be pulled into the autonomy era rather than replaced outright. The U-Hawk pushes that logic to its limit: it is no longer a Black Hawk that can fly itself; it is a Black Hawk physically rebuilt around the assumption that no human will sit in the front seats again.
For customers, the industrial argument is almost as compelling as the operational one. Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin emphasise that the U-Hawk is based on a purchased U.S. Army UH-60L and went from concept to show floor in roughly ten months, a schedule made possible by reusing the existing design, supply chain, and support ecosystem. Company statements and independent analysis point to a global Black Hawk fleet of around 4,500 aircraft, many of them early Alpha and Lima variants operated by U.S. allies in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Instead of scrapping those airframes or selling them for parts, governments can convert selected hulls into autonomous cargo aircraft while continuing to buy new UH-60Ms for crewed assault and MEDEVAC missions, a strategy that spreads capital cost and preserves training and maintenance commonality.
The conversion model also plays directly into the sovereignty and localization agendas of many partner nations. As reported at the Dubai Airshow, Sikorsky’s concept is to send a small specialist team to supervise while local industry carries out most of the structural and systems work, ideally in existing UH-60 maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities. The United Arab Emirates’ AMMROC Black Hawk center, and similar hubs in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, are obvious candidates to host such lines, turning a technical upgrade into an industrial program that creates jobs, builds skills, and anchors long-term ties to the U.S. supply chain.
Other U.S. services are testing smaller unmanned cargo helicopters, and commercial heavy lift drones are maturing fast. Yet none of those solutions sits on top of a worldwide, battle-proven utility helicopter fleet that the Pentagon is still buying in significant numbers under new multi-year deals. If Sikorsky can prove in the 2026 flight test campaign that a converted UH-60L can safely fly complex missions with tablet-level supervision and realistic maintenance costs, U-Hawk could become the template for how NATO, and key partners beyond NATO, squeeze one more very modern life out of their legacy helicopters.
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Sikorsky has turned a surplus UH-60L Black Hawk into the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a cockpit-free autonomous helicopter designed for uncrewed logistics and multi-mission support. The redesign offers larger cargo capacity and MATRIX-powered autonomy, adding new options for U.S. and allied forces planning for contested resupply operations.
During AUSA 2025 in October 2025, Sikorsky converted a surplus UH-60L Black Hawk into the S-70UAS U-Hawk, a fully autonomous helicopter that removes the cockpit and crew stations to create a larger, mission-configurable cargo bay with powered clamshell doors and a ramp, positioning the aircraft as a battle-ready unmanned logistics and multi-mission platform for U.S. and allied forces. Sikorsky now pushed the industrial application: the company aims at customers who already operate Blach Hawk helicopters. The message for them is that they can acquire a brand new unmanned aerial vehicle for less money, instead of keeping a Blach Hawk they wouldn’t possibly need.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
Sikorsky’s S-70UAS U-Hawk converts a legacy UH-60L into a fully autonomous heavy-lift aircraft with a redesigned clamshell nose, expanded cargo bay, and tablet-based MATRIC flight control system, enabling unmanned resupply, UGV deployment, and long-range logistics operations in contested environments (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
The U-Hawk starts life as a standard UH-60L, but Sikorsky strips out the cockpit, seats, and traditional instrumented nose section and replaces them with a blunt, actuated clamshell that opens forward to reveal a flat floor cargo hold. This redesign, combined with internal rearrangement of systems, yields roughly 25 percent more usable cabin volume than a conventional Lima model, enough to fit four Joint Modular Intermodal Containers or a compact 4×4 or 6×6 unmanned ground vehicle that can simply drive off the front ramp. Public data indicate payloads on the order of 4,500 kg internally or externally, keeping the aircraft in the same lift class as a crewed Black Hawk while freeing every kilogram of crew weight for cargo.
The heart of the transformation is the flight control architecture. The U-Hawk uses a third-generation fly-by-wire system integrated with Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy, the same technology stack that powered DARPA’s ALIAS program and the first completely uncrewed UH-60A flights at Fort Campbell in 2022. Instead of cyclic and collective, an operator uses a tablet-like control station to task the aircraft. Once the mission profile is loaded, U-Hawk uses onboard sensors, digital maps, and autonomy algorithms to taxi, take off, navigate, avoid obstacles, manage emergencies, and land without direct pilot stick input. Recent demonstrations in the United States have already shown a soldier controlling an autonomous Black Hawk from more than 100 km away, a clear pointer to how U-Hawk will be commanded on future battlefields.
The aircraft is designed for the problem set that now dominates U.S. Army and NATO planning: contested logistics. In Eastern Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East, resupply flights increasingly must cross air defense bubbles, drone-saturated airspace, and GPS-degraded zones. U-Hawk offers commanders a way to push fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, or spare parts into forward landing zones without risking a crew, while keeping the speed, range, and vertical lift profile of a Black Hawk. Lockheed Martin marketing material and industry reporting show concepts where the aircraft delivers palletized loads, deploys containerized launched effects for ISR or strike, or drops an unmanned ground vehicle that can continue the last kilometers autonomously on the ground. In a Ukraine-style artillery war, that means unmanned delivery of rockets and shells to dispersed batteries. In the Pacific, it could mean sustained resupply of small island detachments from ships operating far offshore, fully integrated into the Joint All Domain Command and Control architecture.
The U-Hawk is also a bridge between past and future in U.S. Army aviation. While Future Vertical Lift promises entirely new airframes in the next decade, the Army and international customers still depend on fleets of UH-60A and UH-60L aircraft that are structurally sound but increasingly obsolescent as frontline troop carriers. Sikorsky has already demonstrated optionally piloted Black Hawks and MATRIX retrofits on legacy platforms under ALIAS, showing that existing airframes can be pulled into the autonomy era rather than replaced outright. The U-Hawk pushes that logic to its limit: it is no longer a Black Hawk that can fly itself; it is a Black Hawk physically rebuilt around the assumption that no human will sit in the front seats again.
For customers, the industrial argument is almost as compelling as the operational one. Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin emphasise that the U-Hawk is based on a purchased U.S. Army UH-60L and went from concept to show floor in roughly ten months, a schedule made possible by reusing the existing design, supply chain, and support ecosystem. Company statements and independent analysis point to a global Black Hawk fleet of around 4,500 aircraft, many of them early Alpha and Lima variants operated by U.S. allies in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Instead of scrapping those airframes or selling them for parts, governments can convert selected hulls into autonomous cargo aircraft while continuing to buy new UH-60Ms for crewed assault and MEDEVAC missions, a strategy that spreads capital cost and preserves training and maintenance commonality.
The conversion model also plays directly into the sovereignty and localization agendas of many partner nations. As reported at the Dubai Airshow, Sikorsky’s concept is to send a small specialist team to supervise while local industry carries out most of the structural and systems work, ideally in existing UH-60 maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities. The United Arab Emirates’ AMMROC Black Hawk center, and similar hubs in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, are obvious candidates to host such lines, turning a technical upgrade into an industrial program that creates jobs, builds skills, and anchors long-term ties to the U.S. supply chain.
Other U.S. services are testing smaller unmanned cargo helicopters, and commercial heavy lift drones are maturing fast. Yet none of those solutions sits on top of a worldwide, battle-proven utility helicopter fleet that the Pentagon is still buying in significant numbers under new multi-year deals. If Sikorsky can prove in the 2026 flight test campaign that a converted UH-60L can safely fly complex missions with tablet-level supervision and realistic maintenance costs, U-Hawk could become the template for how NATO, and key partners beyond NATO, squeeze one more very modern life out of their legacy helicopters.
