U.S. Army Pilots Fly Autonomous Sikorsky Helicopter In First-Of-Its-Kind Demonstration

Technology developed with DARPA aids pilot decision-making and reduced crew

FORT EUSTIS, Va., Oct. 29, 2018/PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Army pilots exercised supervised autonomy to direct an optionally-piloted helicopter (OPV) through a series of missions to demonstrate technology developed by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The series of flights marked the first time that non-Sikorsky pilots operated the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft (SARA), a modified S-76B commercial helicopter, as an OPV aircraft.

"Future vertical lift aircraft will require robust autonomous and optimally-piloted systems to complete missions and improve safety," said Chris Van Buiten, vice president, Sikorsky Innovations. "We could not be more thrilled to welcome Army aviators to the cockpit to experience first-hand the reliability of optimally-piloted technology developed by the innovative engineers at Sikorsky and DARPA. These aviators experienced the same technology that we are installing and testing on a Black Hawk that will take its first flight over the next several months."

SARA, which has more than 300 hours of autonomous flight, successfully demonstrated the advanced capabilities developed as part of the third phase of DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. The aircraft was operated at different times by pilots on board and pilots on the ground. Sikorsky's MATRIX™ Technology autonomous software and hardware, which is installed on SARA, executed various scenarios including:

• Automated Take Off and Landing: The helicopter autonomously executed take-off, traveled to its destination, and autonomously landed
• Obstacle Avoidance: The helicopter's LIDAR and cameras enabled it to detect and avoid unknown objects such as wires, towers and moving vehicles
• Automatic Landing Zone Selection: The helicopter's LIDAR sensors determined a safe landing zone
• Contour Flight: The helicopter flew low to the ground and behind trees

The recent Mission Software Flight Demonstration was a collaboration with the U.S. Army's Aviation Development Directorate, Sikorsky and DARPA. The Army and DARPA are working with Sikorsky to improve and expand ALIAS capabilities developed as a tailorable autonomy kit for installation in both fixed wing airplanes and helicopters.

View the video from the demonstration.

Over the next few months, Sikorsky will for the first time fly a Black Hawk equipped with ALIAS. The company is working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to certify ALIAS/MATRIX technology so that it will be available on current and future commercial and military aircraft.

"We're demonstrating a certifiable autonomy solution that is going to drastically change the way pilots fly," said Mark Ward, Sikorsky Chief Pilot, Stratford, Conn. Flight Test Center. "We're confident that MATRIX Technology will allow pilots to focus on their missions. This technology will ultimately decrease instances of the number one cause of helicopter crashes: Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)."

Through the DARPA ALIAS program, Sikorsky is developing an OPV approach it describes as pilot directed autonomy that will give operators the confidence to fly aircraft safely, reliably and affordably in optimally piloted modes enabling flight with two, one or zero crew. The program will improve operator decision aiding for manned operations while also enabling both unmanned and reduced crew operations.

ARMY, BELL COLLABORATE TO ADVANCE MICRO-UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc., company, met in June to further advance the development of a micro unmanned aerial system or UAS. The UAS is a miniature, lightweight reconnaissance vehicle that Soldiers can carry onto the battlefield and deploy in a confined space.

Bell representatives attended ARL's open campus event in November 2016. Following a year and a half of relationship building and information sharing, signed a five-year cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, in March 2018.

"The CRADA lets us work together," said Dr. John Hrynuk, a mechanical engineer in ARL's Vehicle Technology Directorate. "We're trying to get data on the fundamental level, to build up a knowledge base of vehicles, because their expertise is in designing the vehicles, whereas our expertise is the fundamentals of them."

Hrynuk noted this is new way of doing business between ARL and Bell.

"We want new technology; they want new vehicles," he said. "Together, we want to enhance technologies for the Soldiers -- that's what makes it the absolute perfect collaboration."

Bell engineers, Levi Hefner and Dakota Easley recently visited ARL to use its wind tunnel to perform experiments on the micro UAS.

The visit was prompted by vehicle control challenges Bell researchers had observed in early flight testing. With the help of ARL scientists and equipment, Bell engineers were able to isolate their earlier challenges and improve the performance of the aerial vehicle.

"The wind tunnel here at ARL has been beneficial in providing data that explains why certain things are happening on the control side," Hefner said. "Now we're able to better analyze our tests to enhance the performance of our vehicles.

"So far, the joint effort to improve the UAS has been largely successful, officials said. The two parties worked effectively together by taking advantage of their respective strengths to manage different aspects of the development process.

"This collaboration is great because we're heading into a new design space with these small vehicles," Hefner said. "ARL has the resources and expertise to help us out, and together we can build a better vehicle than either of us could build alone."

Dr. Jaret C. Riddick, VTD director, said the main mission of this collaboration is to combine the resources of both establishments to develop technologies to protect Soldiers."

I am very excited about this collaboration with Bell, and to have Levi and Dakota working side-by-side with ARL researchers in our laboratories here at APG," Riddick said. "Partnering with industry early on in the discovery phase will allow us to accelerate the maturation and transition of exceptional outcomes from our basic and applied research objectives and will enable us to accelerate getting innovative technology into the hands of the warfighter faster.

"Bell's Vice President of Innovation, Scott Drennan, commented on how the use of ARL facilities and resources offers new avenues for the rapid production and advanced prototyping of next-generation vehicles.

"We were excited for the opportunity to send our professionals to ARL to work engineering problems with them, and bring those technical lessons learned back to Bell to aid the rapid development of new technologies," Drennan said. "We share a common goal of developing technologies that will move the industry forward to better support our military, and believe this successful collaboration brings us one step closer."

The work between ARL and Bell is one example of the many collaborations with industry and military. The benefit of this collaboration is to bring advanced technologies and capabilities to the warfighters of tomorrow.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

SIKORSKY, A LOCKHEED MARTIN COMPANY, DELIVERS 1000TH H-60M BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER TO U.S. ARMY

STRATFORD, Conn., Oct. 13, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company (NYSE: LMT), delivered the 1,000th H-60M BLACK HAWK helicopter to the U.S. Army today in a ceremony held in Stratford, Connecticut. The event was attended by distinguished guests from the U.S. Army, government officials, the Defense Contracting Management Agency, industry suppliers, and Lockheed Martin employees.

Speakers included Brigadier General Robert L. Marion, Program Executive Officer, U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Aviation; Colonel William "Billy" Jackson, Project Manager, Utility Helicopters, U.S. Army Program Executive Office; ConnecticutGovernor Dannel Malloy; U.S. Senators for Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy; U.S. Representative for Connecticut's 3rdCongressional District, Rosa DeLauro; and Sikorsky President Dan Schultz. 

During the ceremony, Brigadier General Robert L. Marion said, "The UH-60 is often referred to as the workhorse of Army Aviation and as such your efforts here, past, present, and future are critical to the continued defense of our nation. The rollout of the 1000th UH-60M BLACK HAWK marks an important outcome of our Aviation Modernization Plan, and these aircraft will transform our aviation fleet to a more flexible, capable, and ready team."

Sikorsky delivered the first UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopter in 2007 and the first HH-60M MEDEVAC helicopter in 2008. Today's ceremony marked the delivery of the 792nd UH-60M and the 208th HH-60M helicopters. The 'Mike' model helicopters represent the Army's third standard baseline H-60 BLACK HAWK aircraft version in the 38-year production history of the program. The newest models feature more powerful engines than older variants, a new airframe, avionics and propulsion system, improved rotor blades, a digital cockpit, and an autopilot among other modern enhancements.

In his remarks, Colonel William "Billy" Jackson said, "Providing the Wings of the Eagle is a solemn responsibility.  I am proud to report that this program has delivered many important attributes to our warfighters including more power, more durability and vastly increased situational awareness. We have fielded a fully integrated system…a machine that allows our warfighters to focus on the battlefield. These attributes improve not only our performance, but also our combat readiness."

Currently, there are 2,135 H-60 BLACK HAWK helicopters in service, making the Army's BLACK HAWK helicopter fleet the largest flying fleet of all the services. The Army fleet of BLACK HAWK helicopters of all models has flown nearly nine million flight hours, many of them in combat.

The U.S. Air Force, National Guard, Army Reserve and 10 militaries throughout the world fly H-60M model aircraft. U.S. Government agencies including the Department of State, Customs & Border Protection and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also are operators.

"I know that I speak for all of our employees, many of us military service veterans, when I describe the tremendous pride we feel today," said Dan Schultz, president of Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company. "We are honored to provide our country's men and women in uniform with a proven multi-role aircraft they can count on to perform their missions every day."

The UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopter has been purchased by several international militaries, through the U.S. Government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The U.S. Army has active H-60M BLACK HAWK programs with Bahrain, Jordan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisiaand United Arab Emirates.

Sikorsky delivered the UH-60A BLACK HAWK helicopters from 1978 until 1989, and delivered the UH-60L from 1989 until 2008. The Army plans to keep the BLACK HAWK fleet flying through 2070.

Celebrating the Iconic Huey’s Roots

You can likely ask anyone across generations and they would know about the significance of the Huey helicopter. The name has become synonymous with the term helicopter and the Huey is one of the most widely recognized helicopters ever made.

Sixty years ago, before it would become known as the ‘Huey,’ it would be the XH-40 prototype under development for the U.S. Army. On October 20, 1956 the prototype XH-40 would achieve a successful first fight at our Fort Worth facility. This prototype helicopter was designed to perform medical evacuations, and would become paramount for the military as it increased the amount of patients that could be transported. The platform was increasingly used to quickly transport infantry units in its assault configuration.

Following its first flight, the XH-40 would go through a series of modifications, and was ultimately contracted for inclusion in the U.S. Army inventory. At that point, it was officially designated as the Bell UH-1, the iconic ‘Huey,’ where it would then become the world’s first mass produced turbine powered helicopter.

The original ”Number 1” ship of the XH-40 prototypes, tail number 54459, has just completed a year-long restoration effort funded by Bell Helicopter, the Aviation Museum Foundation and Blastoff Inc. The restoration was done to bring the prototype aircraft as close to its original Army configuration. To commemorate the special anniversary, the restored aircraft was unveiled at a ceremony hosted by the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama on October 20, 2016, sixty years to the day from its first flight.

The historical significance of this airframe is without question as it stands as the ultimate source of not only all ‘Hueys’ to come, but also as a predecessor to almost all rotorcraft design seen in today’s world.

Lockheed Martin to Integrate its Tank Protection Technology for Testing on U.S. Army Vehicles

ORLANDO, Fla., March 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) has awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a next-phase contract to continue maturing the Modular Active Protection Systems (MAPS) controller base kit hardware and software and to support government integration efforts ahead of platform demonstrations scheduled to take place through 2019.

MAPS is designed to enable protection of vehicles and their occupants by integrating sensors and countermeasures in a common framework to detect and defeat existing and emerging threats.

Lockheed Martin delivered five MAPS controllers to TARDEC in 2017. As part of the 16-month follow-on effort, its engineers will work with TARDEC to mature the base kit hardware and software and to support integration of the MAPS Base Kit with existing sensors and countermeasures for U.S. Army virtual and range demonstrations on combat vehicles.

"Our MAPS offering is ready to support field tests using today's platforms and active protection system components," said Paul Lemmo, vice president of Sensors & Global Sustainment at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "A modular and open-architecture design means any component can be selectively upgraded across all MAPS-enabled platforms to address emerging threats. That promotes affordability by extending the system's life cycle, and boosts protection for the warfighter without increasing vehicle weight."

The TARDEC MAPS Base Kit, delivered by Lockheed Martin, consists of a controller, user interface, power management distribution system and application software. It integrates Modular APS Framework (MAF)-compliant components, sensors and countermeasures to detect and defeat threats targeting MAPS-equipped vehicles. In addition to current combat vehicle platforms, it is designed to support future vehicle protection system capabilities. A "MAPS: Ahead of the Threat Curve" videoprovides additional information about the system.