THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A helicopter flew unmanned around Fort Campbell in what is the United States Army’s first automated fight of an empty Black Hawk, officials said.
The 14,000-pound helicopter successfully navigated around the post on the Kentucky-Tennessee border as if it was flying through downtown Manhattan, engineers told reporters in early February 2022.
The UH-60 aircraft was retrofitted with technology developed by the Defense Department’s research arm, reported WPLN-FM in Nashville, Tennessee. The flight was the first time the system, known as ALIAS, flew completely by itself. The system is being tested with 14 different military aircraft. (Pictured: A piloted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flies over flooded regions of New York in 2011.)
Igor Cherepinsky, Sikorsky Innovations director, said the Army will determine how to use the technology. The program began as a “digital co-pilot,” Cherepinsky said. It has become an autonomous pilot but still could be used with a pilot on board.
“One of the reasons we’re here in Fort Campbell, quite frankly, it’s home to some of the most forward-thinking folks who fly rotary-wing aircraft,” he said. “You could certainly see their minds working how to use this.”
The 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment are based at Fort Campbell.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS