JUST IN: Autonomous Army Helicopter Proves Ready for Action
11/2/2022
By Sean Carberry
A Black Hawk helicopter conducted multiple operations with no pilots or crew aboard during the technology tests and demonstrations at the Army’s annual Project Convergence exercise, officials announced Nov. 2.
Sikorsky and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency revealed that an uninhabited Black Hawk performed a rescue operation as well as internal and external cargo resupply missions at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in October. The helicopter flew using Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system as the core of DARPA’s Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System, or ALIAS, program.
“The ALIAS program, the goal of it, was to focus on developing and flight demonstrating a flexible, extensible automation architecture for existing manned aircraft that enables safe reduced-crew operations,” said Stuart Young, DARPA program manager for ALIAS, on a conference call with reporters.
ALIAS is designed to increase safety, in particular, “reduction of … controlled flight into terrain type of situations or degraded visual environments,” he said.
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/11/2/autonomous-army-helicopter-proves-ready-for-action
