Is it the start of Skynet? Maybe. On August 20, 2025, the Army awarded Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, a $43 million contract for modernization engineering efforts on the Black Hawk helicopter.
Specifically, the aircraft will be upgraded with a digital backbone that will allow the integration of unmanned aerial systems and future augmentation with AI.
Entering service with the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade in 1979, the UH-60 Black Hawk was one of the “Big Five” weapon systems designed to modernize the Army in the wake of the Vietnam War. With modernizations to the avionics and powerplant, the Black Hawk remains in service with the U.S. military as well as militaries around the world, from Australia to Ukraine.
Now, the Army wants to launch drones from the Black Hawk. The AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship has been equipped with the ability to data link with drones to enhance its reconnaissance and targeting capabilities, but being able to actually launch drones from a helicopter will add a new tool to the Army’s toolbox.
In addition to the drone-capable digital upgrades, Sikorsky is giving the Black Hawk a more powerful engine, airframe enhancements, and a main fuel upgrade. This will allow the aircraft to carry larger loads for greater distances. Sikorsky notes that future upgrades to flight controls will include autonomy and AI features that will assist pilots in tough conditions, increasing mission safety and effectiveness.
“Sikorsky is ready to implement new technologies that will strengthen the combat-proven Black Hawk helicopter and give U.S. Army soldiers greater advantage in areas like the Indo-Pacific,” Hamid Salim, Sikorsky’s Vice President, Army and Air Force Systems said in a statement. “Integrating launched effects into the Black Hawk will enhance its capabilities and provide a significant advantage. Modernization is reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and improving the overall maintenance and sustainment for the aircraft.”
Sikorsky and the Army are working to deliver drone-launching capability in 2026. This aligns with the Army’s goal to integrate drones and drone-launching into all of its divisions by the end of that year.
Although the Army selected the Bell V-280 tiltrotor aicraft to replace the Black Hawk as the MV-75, the move to modernize the legacy helicopter with drones and AI signals the service’s intent to keep the aircraft flying as well as its rapid adoption of new warfighting technology. Man-portable drones are being issued to small unit levels and hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested into AI.
