Sikorsky to Demonstrate flight autonomy to US Marine Corps
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has been selected by the US Marine Corps to demonstrate the maturity and capability of the MATRIX flight autonomy system.
Operationally relevant demonstration flights during 2025 using Sikorsky’s Optionally Piloted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter will inform the service’s Aerial Logistics Connector program how autonomous aircraft can resupply and sustain Marines in contested battlespace.
“Aircraft with MATRIX autonomy can safely and reliably perform a variety of complex missions, including internal and external cargo transport with no one on board,” said Rich Benton, vice president and general manager of Sikorsky, in a company news release. “With the Marine Corps, we will explore how an autonomy-based fleet of uncrewed aerial systems, rotary and fixed wing aircraft can sustain the expeditionary force with precision resupply during distributed, high-tempo operations.”
The Marine Corps demonstrations will show how autonomous aircraft can keep future Marine forces supplied, whether operating from Navy ships or expeditionary bases ashore. Marines also will interface with Sikorsky’s autonomous aircraft via a tablet to make mission changes before or after take-off.
Demonstrations of the MATRIX flight system are funded under a recent Phase 1 Aerial Logistics Connector agreement through an Other Transaction Agreement under the Naval Aviation Systems Consortium to Sikorsky by the Naval Air Systems Command.
Sikorsky Innovations, the rapid development and prototyping group, has demonstrated mission relevant capabilities of the MATRIX system in both military and commercial operational environments aboard multiple rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
Recent MATRIX autonomy demonstrations
Initially intended to improve safety of flight for crewed helicopters, the system matured with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ALIAS program. Advanced features include assisted flight handling for two pilot operations, virtual co-pilot for a single pilot, or fully autonomous flight with no pilots.
In July at Stafford Airport, Virginia, and again in October 2024 at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) exposition in Washington D.C., Sikorsky and DARPA demonstrated autonomous flights of the Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter to Department of Defense (DoD) officials.
At the October demonstration, DoD leaders on the AUSA tradeshow floor learned to send high level mission goals to the helicopter. Three hundred miles away at Sikorsky headquarters in Connecticut, the aircraft autonomously took off, hovered, flew a short circuit of the flight field, and landed successfully.
These recent demonstrations build on autonomous logistics flights at Project Convergence 2022, when Sikorsky and DARPA successfully demonstrated to the US Army how the Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter, operating without humans on board, can safely and reliably perform internal and external cargo resupply missions.
MATRIX technology
Sikorsky MATRIX technology could one day enable utility helicopters to resupply forward forces on the future battlefield without any human pilots or crew on board.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, and the DARPA successfully demonstrated this logistics/resupply capability to the US Army in October 2022 using an optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter.
At the time Sikorsky and DARPA conducted three flights at US Army Yuma Proving Ground to demonstrate resupply and casualty evacuation by an autonomous utility helicopter. The optionally piloted UH-60A Black Hawk aircraft retrofitted with a full-authority fly-by-wire flight control system used Sikorsky’s MATRIX technology autonomy system to perform the missions.
MATRIX technology forms the core of DARPA’s ALIAS project, an ongoing partnership between Sikorsky and DARPA. The autonomy project is designed to exponentially improve flight safety, reliability and efficiency of both rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
As the enabling technology for optionally piloted flight, MATRIX technology enables rotary and fixed-wing aircraft to be flown with or without humans on board, depending on the mission.
The technology combines software and hardware components to enable autonomous flight in obstacle-rich environments. This creates a safer flying experience overall for both military and commercial customers. Sikorsky’s work in autonomy technology spans several aircraft and focus areas.
Photo by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company
