Guard NCO With No Aviation Experience Trained In Less Than An Hour

A soldier with no aviation experience was trained how to create flight plans and flew unmanned Black Hawk helicopter missions with a handheld tablet while observing on the ground during Northern Strike 25-2, a military exercise held at Camp Grayling in Michigan, in August 2025.

The Black Hawk, known as an optionally piloted vehicle or OPV, was developed by Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and equipped with the Sikorsky MATRIX aircraft autonomy system. The test was conducted by an Army National Guard sergeant first class who was trained on the tablet in less than an hour.

MATRIX gives control of advanced aviation to inexperienced operators who previously had to be trained pilots. This capability will enable resupply, personnel recovery, and contested logistics operations in dangerous or low-visibility areas without risking human lives.

The Army is revamping its aviation formations to minimize costs associated with high-maintenance crewed aircraft and take advantage of autonomous technology to reduce risk to personnel by conducting optionally piloted missions.

During the tests, the NCO directed the vehicle to deliver a payload 70 nm away and commanded multiple precision airborne drops. This was the first time the OPV Black Hawk was operated under the full control of a real warfighter instead of a trained test pilot or engineer.

Two additional test missions were flown, including the first-ever autonomous hookup of an external load while airborne. The other one was a personnel recovery mission with a tail-to-tail patient transfer to a piloted Black Hawk at an unimproved landing site.

Rich Benton, Vice President and General Manager of Sikorsky said in a Lockheed Martin news release, “With lives on the line, Sikorsky’s MATRIX flight autonomy system can transform how military operators perform their missions.”

FMI:  lockheedmartin.com/