An Army helicopter takes on new roles, including as a FLRAA testbed

It’s fair to say that with 4,000 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flying worldwide, the next important role for the utility helicopter is going to be interoperability with the U.S. Army’s newest aircraft type coming into the fleet – the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).

To prepare UH-60s for that eventuality and to serve as a present-day Future Vertical Lift testbed for new capabilities such as launched effects, the Army’s modernization efforts are largely focused on re-engining under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), plus Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) and the digital backbone.

“The Army has made a significant capital investment in rotary wing platforms up and to this point,” said Army Col. Ryan Nesrsta, program manager for Utility Helicopters at U.S. Army PEO Aviation. “In light of that decision and investment, there’s going to be an extant requirement for interoperability [and] pacing the threat with respect to survivability.

“There’s going to be continued relevance for the rotary wing fleet to interoperate with tiltrotor aircraft in any theater of operations. It requires judicious and continued investment in the portfolio to ensure that the Future Vertical Lift family of systems is enabled.”

A key piece of that strategy was the delivery earlier this year of two GE Aerospace T901 ITEP flight-test engines for the UH-60M Black Hawk, replacing the GE T700 powerplants.

“We [recently] had a meeting with the enterprise – our partners from GE and Lockheed Martin – on how we address the nuanced challenges of engine airframe compatibility,” said Nesrsta, noting that the last time such an integration was done was in the 2007 timeframe, when GE’s YT706 turboshaft engine was fitted to an Army special operations MH-60M helicopter.

“There’s lessons learned from previous experience, but knowing that there’s a significant learning curve with respect to the integration of an engine on even a mature platform,” he said. “Design for integration has been ongoing on the UH-60M with the delivery of the engines; physical integration has begun in earnest.”

Sikorsky notes that the ITEP engine offers 50 percent more power than the T700 and an increase in fuel efficiency, giving the aircraft more range and payload.

“The new ITEP will give division commanders more options for planning and executing assault missions,” said Hamid Salim, vice president for Army & Air Force Systems, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky. “This will be a game changer for the Army, and also for the National Guard units. The ITEP also enhances safety, reduces operating costs and provides growth for the future needs of the warfighter.”

For the next steps, the Army Utility Helicopters Project Office (UHPO) and the Aviation Turbine Engines Project Office are working toward a first flight of the ITEP-powered Black Hawk in late FY25, early FY26.

MOSA and interoperability for multi-domain operations

The ongoing transformation in the role of rotary wing aircraft, in particular the UH-60M Black Hawk, in a 21st century security environment will allow it to play a critical role in multi-domain operations and Joint All Domain Command and Control.

“In multi-domain operations, Army Aviation will be able to ‘extend’ to distances at 500 km with ITEP,” an Army Aviation Center of Excellence spokesperson noted. “Combined with launched effects, Army aircraft will be able to ‘reach’ and prosecute targets at double the current range. Combined with support of layered air defense, electronic attack and preparatory fire missions creating multi-domain effects, Army Aviation [can] reach beyond the FLOT (forward line of own troops) in support of the ground commander.

“Rotary wing aircraft will still move people and equipment faster than ground vehicles or watercraft. In JADC2, Army rotary wing aircraft will link into mesh networks to pass data to commanders across the battlefield to foster a joint common operating picture, either as a deliberate airborne node or while executing their other mission tasks. A common joint air picture enhances survivability, improves engagement times, and provides situational understanding reducing the fog of war.”

MOSA is the lens through which much of that will occur, with the UHPO focused on delivering a Black Hawk that supports the Army of 2040 plan, is capable of operating within the air-ground littoral, and maintains fleet reliability and relevance through 2070.

“We intend to do this through Modular Open Systems Architecture, general obsolescence management, IT integration, and survivability and air vehicle modernization opportunities,” said Nesrsta. “UHPO continues to work closely with industry partners to provide demand signals around these initiatives. We’re receptive to industry input for providing more adaptable, affordable systems that are capable of incorporating rapid technologies and upgrades to counter evolving threats.”

For its part, Sikorsky is leveraging significant MOSA investments from the discontinued Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program and applying that to Black Hawk to demonstrate rapid integration of new capability such as crewed-uncrewed teaming.

“We’re demonstrating the benefit of digital infrastructures that allow our customer to make organic changes to the aircraft while enabling distributed situational awareness,” said Salim. “Black Hawk could carry and manage a squadron of launched effects drones to be the forward-deployed eyes and ears for the division commander. We’ve been doing this both in Future Vertical Lift and Black Hawk simulators and aircraft, showing how these assets can seamlessly work together to give our ground commanders a tactical edge.”

Autonomous Black Hawk

In late 2022 at that year’s Army Project Convergence demonstration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated an uncrewed Black Hawk performing a battlefield resupply of blood, a simulated casualty evacuation, and an external sling load cargo resupply mission at high speed at 200 feet of altitude to simulate the battle environment.

“We’ve continued to explore that capability, and have worked with DARPA on what is a planned technology transition agreement to further mature those technologies that lend to tech maturation and risk reduction of what are FLRAA’s requirements for an optionally piloted vehicle capability,” said Nesrsta. “We’re actively pursuing multiple efforts to further mature sensor fusion, autonomous algorithms, and full authority fly-by-wire flight controls as part of our general modernization strategy within the utility office. These three distinct but interrelated lines of effort will evolve from a spectrum of cognitive offloading, to minimally crewed, to ultimately an optimally or optionally crewed system.”

It is this approach that the Army expects will reduce technical risk for the acceleration and integration of autonomy, not just in Black Hawk, but also for FLRAA’s subsequent Increment 2, which in addition to autonomy is also expected to include advanced avionics and an expansion of launched effects.

Lockheed Martin has also continued to expand the autonomy system it calls MATRIX, which forms the core of DARPA’s ALIAS (Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System) project that enabled the autonomous Black Hawk demonstrations.

In addition to the PC22 demo, Sikorsky has demonstrated how the autonomous Black Hawk demonstrator can quickly launch and navigate itself to drop water on a wildfire soon after detection, and how an uncrewed Black Hawk controlled by MATRIX can resupply troops in contested airspace.

Continuing relevance

Black Hawk operators in Europe are focused on Ukraine, while in the Indo-Pacific it’s security and deterrence. U.S. priorities for the UH-60, other rotary wing platforms, and the next-generation of Army aircraft include those requirements in addition to modernization for greater range and payload, interoperability, contested logistics, and leveraging crewed-uncrewed capabilities.

“The FLRAA platform provides a great capability to air assault soldiers from relative sanctuary in friendly and secure areas to deep into adversary territory, far beyond what we can do today,” noted the Army Aviation Center of Excellence. “Black Hawks will still be needed for shorter distances, while the Chinook remains the only heavy lift vertical aircraft and the Apache the only attack aircraft in the Army Inventory. Army Aviation exists to support the soldier on the ground, regardless of the aviation platform – manned or unmanned.”

As such, it’s likely that the modernizations across those platforms – including the newest version of the AH-64E Apache with V6.5 software and the CH-47F Block II program – means that Black Hawk, Apache, and Chinook will likely remain a part of military operations for the next half century.

“In lower-tier air domain, nothing performs better than a helicopter,” said Salim. “Black Hawk offers versatility, reach and access across varying terrain for a wide array of missions from air assault to frontline resupply and humanitarian relief.

“But we’ve got to evolve that capability for tomorrow’s missions, like installing new engines for improved turbine power to ultimately provide lift and fuel efficiency, giving commanders more flexibility. MOSA will make upgrading the enduring platform faster and easier. Crewed and uncrewed teaming will deliver critical network capabilities and intelligence in contested environments while keeping pilots and soldiers out of harm’s way.”