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. military is investing $15 million, led by Near Earth Autonomy and Honeywell, to retrofit UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters with autonomous systems.
The project aims to enable uncrewed logistics flights, reducing risk to personnel in contested environments and repurposing surplus aircraft into autonomous workhorses.
Near Earth Autonomy's "Captain" system will allow the Black Hawks to operate without pilots, remotely or continuously linked, by autonomously detecting and navigating around obstacles.
This effort is part of a broader military strategy to integrate autonomous flight capabilities across various aircraft types, including other rotary-wing platforms, tankers, and cargo planes.

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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