Sikorsky was acquired in 2015 and is now a division of Lockheed Martin.
Sikorsky Vice-President, Richard Benton and President of Rotary and Mission Systems, Stephanie C Hill are seen here demonstrating Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomy system that allows for “optionally-piloted operation”.
It is possible or even likely that the Black Hawk® helicopter that collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 was hijacked via cyber attack.
As Tore Maras tweeted on the morning of January 30th:
Certain modifications could enable a Black Hawk to be remotely controlled against the pilots’ will. Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomy system allows for optionally-piloted operation, meaning if hacked or overridden, control could be forcibly taken away.
While traditional UH-60s use mechanical controls, newer fly-by-wire versions, such as DARPA’s ALIAS Black Hawk, introduce a higher risk of external interference. Aircraft equipped with digital avionics, satellite links, or remote access could also be susceptible to electronic warfare (EW) attacks or cyber intrusions, potentially allowing an adversary to override manual controls.
The U.S. military has raised concerns about backdoors in avionics components, especially those sourced from foreign suppliers, such as CCP-altered chipsets, which could introduce unauthorized remote access without pilot awareness. @DougBurgum knows.
US PILOTS do not do KAMIKAZE
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TRANSCRIPT
Richard Benton, Vice-President, Sikorsky: We’re working hand-in-hand with the Army to modernize Black Hawks®, to incorporate new technology, new capabilities to create the Black Hawk® of the future. And one critical technology of all these things is autonomy. And that brings me here today.
Stephanie C Hill, President Rotary and Mission Systems, Sikorsky: Are we really going to fly this optionally-piloted autonomous Black Hawk® in Connecticut, from 300 miles away, right here in Washington, DC? And the answer is a resounding “Yes, we’re going to!”
Sikorsky Engineer: You’re going to see the aircraft come up to a stabilized hover. And this is going to simulate tested logistics operations, where we would have a ground crew hooking up a swing load to the aircraft.
And this aircraft is holding position remarkably well!
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