AUSA 2025: Sikorsky unveils Black Hawk-based unmanned S-70 U-Hawk

The U-Hawk has 25% more cargo space than the UH-60L Black Hawk. (Lockheed Martin )

Lockheed Martinʼs Sikorsky subsidiary unveiled an S-70U-Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) prototype, based on a repurposed UH-60L Black Hawk, at the Association of the United States Army's (AUSA's) annual symposium in Washington, DC, on 13 October.

For the U-Hawk, the company “completely removed the cockpit, the pilot, and also the crew chief stations of the aircraft” and on the nose added clamshell doors that open to the side so they can function while the rotor spins, Sikorsky Advanced Programs Business Development director Ramsey Bentley told reporters during a briefing ahead of AUSA.

It is similar to “a C-5 transport or a C-17 transport [aircraft] where the actual fuselage of the aircraft opens up with clamshell doors and then it has a ramp that drops down for easy loading of vehicles”, Bentleysaid. “This gives us the entire cabin and cockpit area for either a logistics operation or mission support operations, so we're able to drive uncrewed ground vehicles, UGVs, up into the aircraft for deployment.”

The company has also “specifically designed what we call a launch effects quiver that sits in the cabin of the aircraft, backed by where the main doors are for the cabin area”, Bently said. Depending upon the size of the launched effect – the US Army is seeking short- and medium-range launched effects – the quiver can hold 24–50 rounds in the back of the aircraft.

It can carry about 7,000 lb of cargo internally, 9,000 lb externally, or 10,000 lb of combined internal and external cargo, Sikorsky Innovations director Igor Cherepinsky told reporters during the briefing.