Army Partners to Automate UH-60L Black Hawk

Near Earth Autonomy and Honeywell look to retrofit helicopters with systems that could eliminate the need for onboard crew, remote pilots, and continuous data links.

Jack Daleo

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 02:27 PM ET

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Jack Daleo

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter [Courtesy: U.S. Army]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Army is investing $15 million in a project led by Near Earth Autonomy and Honeywell to retrofit UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters with autonomous flight capabilities.
This initiative aims to transform surplus Black Hawks into uncrewed logistics platforms, enabling operations in complex environments while significantly reducing risk to personnel.
Near Earth Autonomy's "Captain" system will allow the Black Hawks to operate without onboard pilots, remote control, or continuous data links, autonomously detecting and avoiding obstacles.
The program is designed to be scalable, establishing a process for integrating autonomous systems across a broad range of current and future military rotary-wing aircraft, as part of a wider military autonomy drive.

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The U.S. military is looking to take the pilot out of the cockpit of one of its workhorse helicopters.

Near Earth Autonomy—which says its autonomy systems have powered more than 10,000 flights on over 140 airframes from Airbus, Boeing, Bell, Leonardo, and other manufacturers—on Tuesday announced it will lead a $15 million effort to retrofit U.S. Army UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters alongside Honeywell. The project is funded by the Army Program Executive