A historical flight has taken place. Sikorsky announced on Feb 8,
that a UH-60 Alpha-model Black Hawk helicopter flew for the first time
entirely unmanned, that is without a pilot, as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program.
UH-60 Black Hawk was said to be retrofitted with the special
flight control system known as Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System or ALIAS, which flew
the aircraft independently of any human inputs.
ALIAS is currently being tested on 14 different US Army aircraft.
This unmanned flight was specifically using a Black Hawk that was fitted with Sikorsky
MATRIX, an artificial intelligence technology that also forms the ALIAS.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why UH-60 Black Hawk's unmanned flight has a significant
impact on future conflicts? Let's get started.
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The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter
manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United
States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) competition in 1972.
Named after the Native American war leader Black Hawk, the UH-60A entered service with the U.S.
Army in 1979, to replace the Bell UH-1 Iroquois as the Army's tactical transport helicopter. This
was followed by the fielding of electronic warfare and special operations variants of the Black Hawk.
Modified versions have also been developed for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
In addition to U.S. Army use, the UH-60 family has been exported to several nations.
Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky and DARPA have been working on ALIAS for roughly six years.
Till now there was always a pilot in the aircraft
even if the helicopter performed the flight entirely on its own.
Igor Cherepinsky, director of Sikorsky Innovation,
told reporters during a Feb. 8 virtual press briefing that there is a switch in the helicopter
called the “210 switch”, the switch indicates how many pilots are present in the aircraft
-for the first time before the flight, it was turned to zero.
For 30 minutes, the ALIAS Black Hawk flew without anyone inside over Fort
Campbell, Kentucky, on Feb. 5 and then again on a shorter flight on Feb. 7.
The aircraft performed pre-flight checks, took off and ran through a simulated Light
Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system depicting the congested and complex New York City skyline.
The 14,000-lb aircraft navigated autonomously to the simulated skyscrapers,
flying through Manhattan, according to Cherepinsky. Then the aircraft landed by itself.
A Lockheed Martin press release says, "To demonstrate its ability to adapt to
a variety of mission environments, the uninhabited Black Hawk navigates at typical speed and altitude
through a simulated cityscape, avoiding imagined buildings while route re-planning in real-time.
All the while, on-board sensor simulation provides real-time obstacle data."
ALIAS integrates a high level of automation into manned aircraft and has the capability to
take up additional functionality.
The company statement stated, “ALIAS aims to support execution of an
entire mission from takeoff to landing, including autonomously handling contingency events such as
aircraft system failures. Easy-to-use interfaces facilitate supervisor-ALIAS interaction”
Stuart Young, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said.
“With reduced workloads pilots can focus on mission management instead of the mechanics.
This unique combination of autonomy software and hardware will make flying both smarter and safer.”
DARPA and Sikorsky have together invested roughly $160 million
in the ALIAS program. The plan is to wrap up the program by the end of the year, Young said.
He added that the split between the two was relatively even.
ALIAS brings operational flexibility to the Army, Young said. “This includes the ability to operate
aircraft at all times of the day or night, with and without pilots, and in a variety
of difficult conditions, such as contested, congested, and degraded visual environments,”
Viewers may not that a major cause for U.S. Army aviation mishaps is a combination of human error
and degraded visual environments.
This is the same in other countries too - in Dec 2021 India lost its
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in a helicopter crash and initial investigations indicated
that poor visual condition & potential misjudgment from the pilot was the cause.
So, a program like ALIAS could help offload the burden on the pilot in complex environments.
Technically, ALISA would allow the U.S Army to fly in conditions that normally ground a helicopter.
The system could ultimately be integrated into the Army’s Future Vertical Lift programs
as they continue through the development process.
Young and Cherepinsky said DARPA will transition the capability to the US Army so it can
kit out its current and future fleets with customized autonomous capability.
While it remains to be seen if ALIAS ever replaces human pilots fully,
the ability to help crews make better decisions or multitask in demanding conditions
could ultimately save lives and improve the overall reliability of missions.
It is likely that more tests will be carried out on different platforms so as to rid ALIAS
of niggles and bugs and its remains to be seen how things develop in this space.