>Sikorsky has unveiled a new, fully uncrewed version of the Black Hawk helicopter with a completely transformed front end that swaps out the cockpit for clamshell doors. Depending on how it is configured, what has been dubbed the U-Hawk can move thousands of pounds of outsized cargo internally and slung underneath, deploy uncrewed ground vehicles, and fire dozens of “launched effects” like surveillance and reconnaissance drones and loitering munitions.https://www.twz.com/air/uh-60-black-hawk-cargo-drone-with-clamshell-nose-breaks-coverhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj7tjvTPwWI
>>64391847I thought it was a Star Trek shuttle from the thumbnail. Looks pretty neat.
You must be mental to willingly ride in a upscaled RC helicopter.
>>64391847>Sikorsky says the U-Hawk will also be able to “self-deploy” out to a range of 1,600 nautical miles and have a total unrefueled endurance of 14 hours.>Regardless of the missions it is configured for, Sikorsky is designing the U-Hawk to provide all of its capabilities with minimal training and sustainment requirements. Sikorsky says individuals without aviation-specific skill sets can be readily trained to operate the uncrewed Black Hawk via touchscreen tablet-like devices. The MATRIX system has a demonstrated ability to get platforms like the OPV Black Hawk between set waypoints in a highly autonomous manner.>“Everything from delivering swarms of drones, from launched effects ‘quivers,’ carrying cargo in a contested logistics environment, driving on and off uncrewed ground vehicles, operating in a counter-UAS function, [and] roll-on and roll-off of supplies.” “What this quiver does is, depending upon the size of the launched effect, it’s able to hold 24 to 50 different launched effects in the back of the aircraft,” Sikorsky’s Bentley said. “The quiver is actually designed for what would be the Army short-range and medium-range-sized LEs. The long-range [ones] probably ends up going out on the [stub] wing, like you’ve probably seen [in] some other demonstrations.”>>64391862very transformersesque
>>64391894what's the issue? it's just a blackhawk with the cockpit lopped off. it isn't inherently anymore dangerous than normal whirlybirds and automated flight systems work pretty well at this point. seems like a good idea for a proven platform to perform logistics jobs and such.
>>64391847at this point why even make it helicopter shaped? just use a cargo drone and armor it
>>64391912It makes sense if you want something big using an existing platform that can take advantage of all the supply chain for maintenance. Reusing things is common.
>>64391912If quad copter was the optimal design for a full sized helicopter, don't you think we'd already be using it for piloted choppers?
>>64391847Didn't think I'd be getting vored by a robot helicopter but here we are.
>>64391900You walk down an open street when this appears, then flies towards you, mouth open ready to gulp you down, the prior victims in the catch-cage inside telling you to run.
>>64391847>>64391900>Sikorsky’s Bentley also said the company envisions U-Hawks performing non-military missions, including supporting wildfire fighting and disaster relief operations. A number of civilian operators already fly crewed H-60 variants in these roles.>>64391912>The current cost proposition for the U-Hawks also includes savings from reusing existing UH-60L airframes. The U.S. Army has been steadily retiring these versions and selling them off as it acquires newer, more capable M variants. The Army had been working to bring some 760 L models up to an improved standard called the UH-60V, but axed plans for further conversions last year as part of a larger shakeup in the service’s aviation priorities. As such, hundreds more UH-60Ls are expected to become available in the coming years. Other older H-60s that could be turned into uncrewed versions might become available as other operators around the world begin upgrading their fleets, as well.
>>64391928well the problem is having pilots. by needing pilots you need a cockpit and have to base the design around that. without needing pilots you can create all sorts of whacky designs
>>64391847you would have to hold me at gunpoint to get me in that death trap
>>64391982the humanoid drones will just drag you
>>64391894They'll start them off as equipment haulers, and in a few years, once they've proven to be an order of magnitude safer than human piloted helos they will start being used as troop carriers.It'll probably still be a decade or more before we see combat drops, though.
>>64391847The future of war is looking bright
>>64391905Automated flight systems work great if there is nothing going wrong. There is a reason why aircraft with autopilots still have humans in the pilot seat, and that reason is because automated systems tend to shit the bed when they have to start operating outside expected parameters. Those unexpected conditions might only occur in one in ten thousand flights, but a helicopter is going to fly thousands of hours in its lifetime. Given the blackhawk's current serious incident rate of about 1 per 100,000 flight hours, automated systems would greatly decrease the reliability of the platform.This might be acceptable for a semi-expendable system that cuts corners in a number of other ways to keep costs down (at the cost of reliability) so that the lifetime costs are reduced by an order of magnitude, and the downsides of a much higher failure rate can simply be factored into the cost of the platform. Helicopters that carry humans or high value cargo are not semi-expendable, and thus must be built to the same reliability standards as human piloted aircraft, including not occasionally crashing because the flight computer got confused.That said, there is still a place for an aircraft like this, but it isn't for regular transport duties - an unmanned transport is useful for high risk operations where there is a decent chance that the bird doesn't survive the trip i.e. "contested logistics environments" or being used as a large armed drone, and configuring the blackhawk as a drone at least saves you a very expensive air crew. As >>64391921 notes, it simplifies supply chains, and benefits from existing economies of scale by being a variant of the common blackhawk. But for the time being, low risk flights hauling high value cargo (i.e. humans) will continue to be manned by humans, because humans are currently the most reliable way of minimizing avoidable losses.Maybe this will change eventually if reliable AI ever stops being vaporware. I'm not holding my breath.
>>64392094>once they've proven to be an order of magnitude safer than human piloted helosIf. You're implying that they are already more effective and safer, when the proof of which hasn't been established yet. Don't put the cart before the horse, that how you end up with an empty cart, goods scattered everywhere and a squished horse.
More content for me air vore folder.
>>64392094> order of magnitude safer than human piloted helosLol.Lmao.
>>64392128This image is deeply unsettling. Do you have more?
>>64392126>>64392130Yeah, that's why they will be doing these flights.
>>64391847With a front opening ramp door I imagine that you have a lot more flexibility with the dimensions and type of payload, probably can do things that otherwise would've needed Chinooks
>>64391847>U-hawkI laughted
>>64391847>sikorskyfor a second there I thought that this was some wunderwaffe the Ukrainians had cooked up
>>64392130>>64392126A computer doesn't need to sleep, it does not need to piss or shit, it doesn't need to take breaks, it doesn't need to perform reckless stunts to annoy/impress others, it doesn't need to get counseling because it's bitch of a wife is sleeping with another man, all it needs is fuel and maintenance.This means; higher sortie rate, less demanding sortie schedules for human pilots, lower injury rate due to no one needing to be in the helicopter, etc, etc.Now imagine these robo-copters haul standardized cargo designed specifically for autononous packing robots. A self driving forklift comes in, scans the item and brings it to a designated drop off zone.Imagine getting a supply drop in a contested battle zone and none of your soldiers even have to go outside; the cargo just drives itself to them.To doubt this would be several orders of magnitude safer than dumb fuck meat monkeys manhandling tons of explosives on two hours of sleep, twelve cups of coffee and a pack of Zyns is retarded.
>>64391847>33 tons of cargoUhh a normal Blackhawk can carry about 4 tons of cargo MAYBE 5 tons in a pinch. How does this magic work?
>>64392514>33 tons of cargo>Uhh a normal Blackhawk can carry about 4 tons of cargo MAYBE 5 tons in a pinch. How does this magic work?and now it has 1600 miles of rangea helicotperlol
>>64392514The front fell off
>>64392514>>64392534From an official yt post>33+ tons of cargo transported 10k lbs per 100km trip flying continuously for 16 hours without the need for crew rest.
>>64392551Ah, so they mean 33 tons picked up sequentially in 5 ton chunks? Weird way to phrase it but I guess I understand the point.
>>64392551lol.lmao.
>>64392492It also means less demand for helicopter pilots in general and I expect to see civilian versions too.
>>64392343
>>64391847So removing the crew compartment allows the Black Hawk to carry more payload than the CH-47, CH-53 and the C-130? It can sling load a fully armored M2 Bradley now? Who believes this bullshit?
>>64391912Yeah I mean who cares about aerodynamics and thus fuel economy, range, and noise.
>>64391847interesting implications for logistics, if you have this thing running a repeat trip between two areas that would otherwise need a longer trip(no roads, muddy roads, mountainous terrain). frees up a real pilot to perform more judgement-intensive tasks while the drone runs the simpler A-B route.
>>64392551>I picked up a 10lb dumbbell 20 times>I can lift 200lbs broWhat logic is this?
>>64391847Shai Hulud!
>>64391958Did they make this trailer in arma?
>>64391894What's the down side of crashing? You're enlisted.
>>64391847The funniest part is that pilot safety and inability to pilot in certain conditions is one of the main reasons why flights are sometimes impossible. Without a pilot refusing to take off, we're gonna see a lot more crashes with fatalities as commanders begin considering it foolproof just because they can force it to fly from a tablet.
>>64391847>install blender>fueled by blood
>>64392567the power of being technically correct. I wonder if Elbonia read the small print when buying their new ultra heavy lift helicopter fleet hahaha
>>64392847the renderium used for this commercial was mined unethically. Boycott!
>>64392841What if, get this, the pilot software hooked up to twelve million sensors, with millions of hours of flight data to work from is better at flying than 40 year old meatbags with enlarged prostates?
>>64392900What if, get this, the physics don't change just because a pajeet-written LLM with cameras is at the helm instead of a man who wants to see his wife and children again some day.
>>64392841>>64392927You really think this isn't considered?
>>64392128i cant believe i run the risk of encountering you IRL
>>64392927The physics of what, exactly?Of human cognition being impaired under constant stress and fatigue?What about the classic problem of flying under low visibility and getting disoriented, such that the pilots sense of balance tells them that pitching down and crashing this plane with no survivors is optimal because lol inner ear fluids?You are part of the same group of do-nothing blatherers who complain endlessly about how every new technology is going to fail because "it ain't like it used to be when I was a youngin"Trust me; humans are shit are driving, they are shit at piloting and they are shit at recovering from crashes.By the time these are used to move actual troops they will have performed in more hostile environments, for longer, with a higher success rate than every single pilot on Earth combined.Don't forget Moore's law; every 2 years computational power doubles; and meatbags stay exactly the fucking same
I don't even trust helos piloted by PT dodging, coffee drinking warrants who have been doing it since Noriega was the man. Now make it RC? Nah.
>>64392492Imagine the thirds when you use these to plop arty on every snowy peak lol.
>>64392699military
>>64392981I want the AI to like, if it's hopeless, kill me fast. Like float around in debris mid pacific or slam into the ocean and die is a pretty easy one for me.
>>64391894helicopters are death traps anyway
>>64392981The physics of FLYING, dipshit. If a skilled pilot refuses to fly because of conditions, he avoids the awful scenario of trying to control the flying coffin in bad weather or under active enemy fire.The LLM/Software package cannot refuse, so it will test its mettle in these awful conditions, many of which are actually inescapable once you get caught in them, which will cause fatalities that are usually avoided by the man with IQ over 100 refusing to undertake a retarded flight.
>>64393156>Pilots only make safe decisions and never engage in risk taking behaviorwew lad
Additional to other concerns I'd be worried of stepping into a vehicle that could reasonably be jammed. In an age of drones being on the forefront of weapons technology, even if that is likely to be a short time, I think amongst the technology developed and learned from will be jamming. That thing should not carry humans.>>64392841Even a completely new "remote operating pilot" divorced from all of today's practises, will probably quickly come to the conclusion that they will not crash 12 men into a rock face just because they are not in the helicopter as well.
>>64392063this
>>64393164>Some resistance to suicidal missionsvs>No resistance to suicidal missions
>>64393165The demo seemed to portray a self-flying aircraft 'tasked' by user, not a remote-flight aircraft. The execution of the tasking seemed to be entirely up to the aircraft itself.
>>64391847>come in me if you want to live>t.
>>64393180You still have a crew chief numb nuts
>>64392699It's not>I can pick up 200 lbsIt's>I can move 200 lbs from A to B... In multiple tripsIt's still disingenuous to phrase it like that, but marketers are physically incapable of being honest and upfront.
>>64393202>Task an enlisted man with a WO job of analyzing the mission, situation, flight path and meteorological conditions to appraise the tasking as feasible.Wew, I hope he knows you just gave him two jobs without the pay grade of the hardest one.
>>64393211>Wew, I hope he knows you just gave him two jobs without the pay grade of the hardest one.Why yes I'm a Battalion Commander, how did you know?
>helicopter (satanic)>abominable intelligence (satanic)Double satan vehicle for the great satan
>>64392960Hi :3
>>64393202>The designated victim.
>>64391847Silly americans, inventing a flying rape van that scoops up victims from the ground and brings them back home. What will they think up next? A mechanical negro?
>>64393184So, preprogrammed? That'd solve some issues, but if it's still running on its onboard sensors that's still dicey. If it's running on geolocation then sure but, eh, how hard is it to knock even a single one of its navigation tools out of whack? It only takes one and the whole thing goes up in smoke. Cargo? Sure, cool, great. Humans? Never.
>>64391912Auto rotation. Landing a helo with full system failure outside of retaining mechanical linkage and controls.see: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DFLvL1qrcVY?feature=shareQuadrotor drones can't do that. No damage survivalability.The U-Hawk is intended to carry important cargo, human or otherwise. If damaged it can land like damaged helicopter, probably more accurately compared to a human doing it.
>>64393141Yeah, but at least the pilot is at risk themselves if they do anything stupid
>>64393279The demo featuring selling points posted in the thread touts that soldiers task the aircraft from dustoff to end of mission, so it is likely to be ran by a software package, so pre-propgammed.And it likely features both geolocation and sensors, since there's no reason not to have both for advanced precision. The biggest hazards would be during landing and take off, and during bad flight conditions that are known to be very dangerous for helicopters like the Blackhawk.It would certainly take some skill and a robust control unit to direct it to disembark troops on a rooftop, so the clear field to clear field logi runs are the likely application for it at the current tech stage.
>>64393132>I want the AI to like, if it's hopeless, kill me fastYou should be so lucky. You have much suffering to go...
>>64393472
>>64391847>DoW (DoD) issues a project and its a complete shitshow that costs a bazillion dollars and the result is totally underwhelming (gets cut 80% of the time) >random contractor just does a thing and its fucking awesome and revolutionary We need like a Hegseth but who does what Hegseth does to the pentagons R&D and acquisitions departments.
does anyone else feel a guilty anticipation in knowing that we'll all be watching the us-china-taiwan war live in just a few years and shitposting about it in real time?
>>64393608Not even a little bit, if the bugs want to fight over a tiny island then they can have at itHighly unlikely that significant materiel will be risked when this chimpout comes, the process of moving important Taiwanese manufacturing and expertise to the states has already begunJust like Hong Kong, it's only notable because it was uplifted, chinks will just run it into the ground
>>64391900That is absolutely fucking awesome.
>>64392669>>64392551
>>64391912Your image will never be real. A drone that small can't life a container like that, let alone 33tons like the U-HAWK claims.
>>64393545You need someone quite a bit smarter than Hegseth, because the problem that leads to the symptom you've identified starts way further back in the procurement process (requirements driven procurement, as opposed to ooportunity driven procurement, itself driven by having a large standing military with a lot of standing short-notice obligations).
>>64391958disgusting amounts of firepower20 pgms in a highly mobile, attritable platformborderline uncounterable
>>64393817nta but your reading comprehension is shitful because the 33t claim is not relevant to that pic
>>64393836Yet another pathetic western imitation
>>64391900You gain a lot of useful load back when you don't need pilot seats, instruments, or controls.
>>64392128
>>64393211>>64393180In war, people die. None of the pilots flying to Hostomel desisted because it was a "suicide" mission.In fact, these motherfuckers probably volunteered. My point is, no, human pilots don't just say "nah, I'm not going to do my job today, because my tea leaves this morning predicted big sad ahead and the vibes are just not it", they usually just go full retard
>>64394505> human pilots don't just say "nah, I'm not going to do my job today, because my tea leaves this morning predicted big sad ahead and the vibes are just not it"Yeah, they totally do. In fact, that’s a pretty damn big part of becoming a pilot.Unless they’re batshit insane coasties.
you could get sooo creative/weird with this if youd give soldiers a chance to
>>64394557And a machine can run those risk calculations based on actual fucking numbers and not just vibes, bro. Either way it doesn't matter because orders are orders and helicopters are such fragile pieces of shit that even completely routine missions go catastrophically wrong on a fairly regular basis.
>>64391847You know they're going to paint those things with anime waifus with one leg on each side of the front hatch
>>64391847Why does the nose still need to be Blackhawk-shaped? You could extend it a bit and greatly increase internal volume.
>>64394741Almost certainly aerodynamics and COG/COL stuff. The possibility wouldn't be lost on the aeroenges who are actually designing this thing, so I think it's reasonable to assumr there's a good reason.
>>64392781NTA but earlier this year I saw Boeing trying to mooch some free game dev student labor to build a system for stuff like this, most likely in Unity or UE. The odds that it isn't something half baked in a commercial engine or game are absolutely zero.
>>64391958>33 tons of cargo 100km in 16 hoursIs it just me or does that not sound like a lot?
>>64391847lewd robot-chan.....
>>64392514I'm going to guess that the cockpit and avionics and all the armor to protect the pilot is heavy as fuck
>>64392122It’s not perfect yet but Waymo is pretty great. Genuinely a better driver than the majority of my Uber drivers. This isn’t airplanes or helicopters yet but there is finally being tangible progress made for a product that carries humans. I could see the military having access to a “better than many pilots” level of autonomy within 10 years. Especially after OpenAI and friends realize that AGI isn’t happening any time soon and there’s data centers full of video cards everywhere and investors saying they’ll need to turn a profit and to focus on something tangible.
>>64393141
>>64394925I don't like waymo sounds chinese
>>64394505>Bro hostomel>Clear day weather>Helicopters touch down and unload infantry>No confirmed losses of airframes due to conditions>At best some losses to enemy fire>Meanwhile an airframe can enter an area of evil wind and immediately nosedive into the ground unless the pilot's entire family prayed to YHWH that day.War tourists are the worst thing to happen to this board.
>>64391912Parts commonality, it cuts down on logistics and also makes maintenance 10X easy since the techs already know how to keep the standard blackhawks up and running so training the technicians on the new features is fast and easy
>>64395177Google owns them so do with that as you will.
>>64395246more like GAYgle
