Soldier flies drone Black Hawk from tablet in training first for optionally piloted helicopter
By COREY DICKSTEIN STARS AND STRIPES •
October 31, 2025
A National Guard soldier uses a tablet to command the Sikorsky OPV Black Hawk to autonomously transport a 2,900-pound water buffalo sling load for the first time during the Northern Strike exercise in Michigan in August. (Sikorsky) It took less than an hour for an enlisted Army National Guard soldier with no past aviation experience to train to fly a Black Hawk helicopter during a training exercise this summer, according to utility chopper’s manufacturer. But the sergeant first class was not in the cockpit. Instead, he flew the aircraft remotely using a tablet in the U.S. Army and Black Hawk-maker Sikorsky’s first real-world, soldier-run test of its optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter, the company announced in a news release Thursday. The training occurred in August as part of the National Guard’s Northern Strike exercise in Michigan, during which some 7,500 Guard forces from 36 states trained for two weeks with the latest military tech including drones and electronic warfare capabilities, according to the National Guard. During that exercise, the noncommissioned officer — who was not named publicly — flew the optionally manned Black Hawk, or OPV Black Hawk, from the deck of a Coast Guard vessel on Lake Huron, according to Sikorsky. Using the tablet, the soldier instructed the helicopter to perform “racetrack patterns” over the lake while soldiers inside the OPV Black Hawk performed resupply parachute drops some 70 miles away. It marked the first time Sikorsky’s OPV Black Hawk conducted a mission entirely planned and controlled by soldiers.
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https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2025-10-31/fly-black-hawk-from-tablet-training-first-19609866.htmlSource - Stars and Stripes
