Image: Lockheed Martin
Sikorsky has completed flight testing and delivered the U.S. Army’s experimental UH-60MX Black Hawk helicopter, now fully integrated with the company’s MATRIX™ autonomy suite — the first full-authority fly-by-wire, optionally piloted UH-60 in the Army’s fleet.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, announced the handover this week. The aircraft is owned and operated by the Army. Rich Benton, Sikorsky’s vice president and general manager, said the delivery gives the Army “a new tool that furthers its vision laid out in the Army Transformation Initiative to mature and qualify pilot-supported autonomy.”
The UH-60MX mirrors Sikorsky’s earlier UH-60A fly-by-wire Optionally Piloted Black Hawk, which has been tested by Army and Sikorsky aviators over hundreds of flight hours. In November 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth commanded the UH-60A during a demonstration. Sikorsky has now fitted its MATRIX autonomy kit to all three Army Black Hawk variants — the UH-60A, UH-60L, and UH-60M.
Throughout 2025, the Army and Sikorsky jointly retrofitted the MX airframe with fly-by-wire flight controls before integrating the MATRIX system. The Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) will now use the aircraft to test autonomy capabilities across the full spectrum — from manned flight through to fully autonomous operations.
MATRIX provides automated landing-zone detection and obstacle-avoidance for safe operations in degraded visual environments. It delivers real-time terrain awareness to reduce crew exposure to hostile fire. The system also handles routine flight-control tasks, allowing pilots to focus on mission-critical decisions. Its open-architecture design reduces maintenance hours and lowers lifecycle costs.
The system also forms the core of DARPA’s ALIAS (Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System) programme, according to Sikorsky.
Lockheed Martin frames MATRIX as central to its 21st Century Security® strategy — a scalable baseline for contested logistics, launched effects, and uncrewed operations. The S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™, Sikorsky’s unmanned Black Hawk derivative, forms part of the same modernisation roadmap.
The UH-60MX will now support the Army in developing tactics, techniques, and procedures for optionally piloted and autonomous systems within human-machine integrated formations conducting combat and combat support missions across the joint force.
Source: Lockheed Martin Press Release
