Next in military technology: Unmanned Black Hawk?

[FarCenter]

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. announced a billion-dollar venture on Monday that it hopes will respond to military demand for technology to fight two wars, including Black Hawk helicopters that can see and fly on their own.

The Stratford-based helicopter maker and military contractor said Sikorsky Innovations is intended to speed the transformation of the mechanical helicopter into a computerized aircraft.

The Black Hawk is a military workhorse, used in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Grenada and Panama. It’s also part of military packages sold to other nations and has been used in civilian missions such as rescuing snowbound mountain climbers.

The Black Hawk, used for air assault and medical evacuation, was featured in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down,” chronicling a battle in Somalia in 1993 when two helicopters were shot down, killing 18 soldiers.

Some of the deadliest crashes, involving five Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq, killed 51 soldiers between 2003 and 2007. The helicopter is heavily relied upon in Afghanistan, a mountainous nation with long stretches of desert and few decent roads.

“Imagine a vehicle that can double the productivity of the Black Hawk in Iraq and Afghanistan by flying with, at times, a single pilot instead of two, decreasing the workload, decreasing the risk, and at times when the mission is really dull and really dangerous, go it all the way to fully unmanned,” Chris Van Buiten, Director of Sikorsky Innovations, told an audience of 100 government, university and business representatives on Monday.

Unmanned war planes are not new but are drawing interest from commanders trying to reduce casualties while not relenting in combat.

“The new thing here is to apply technologies in small airplanes and rotorcraft to the 20,000-pound Black Hawk,” Van Buiten said in an interview. “It ups the stakes.”

Sikorsky intends to have a demonstrator model of an unmanned Black Hawk ready this year and introduce it by 2015. An unmanned version could add about $2 million to the current $15 million price tag, but would save money with fewer or no crew members, he said.
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[Merchant Marine]

1. The Coast Guard has been working on some drone tech

for Search and Rescue and their drug interdiction mission. They've been working on modifying their Dolphin helicopters to run on remote control.

They've also got robot boats with a mounted machine gun on them.

[RC]

2. Program them right and after they have killed off all the humans,

they can fight each other.
Peace at long last.

[PacerLJ35]

3. "Save lives" with a single- or non-piloted transport helicopter?

What's the point of saving lives if the cabin is full of troops...