U.S. Military Plans to Upgrade Black Hawk Helicopter to Fly Unmanned by End of Year

The U.S. military is exploring more uses for unmanned systems for surveillance, signals intelligence, precision target designation, mine detection, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear reconnaissance. According to "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap," as of October 2008, unmanned aircraft systems (hand-launched systems) have flown almost 500,000 flight hours, unmanned ground vehicles have conducted more than 30,000 missions, detecting and/or neutralizing over 15,000 improvised explosive devices and unmanned maritime systems have provided security to ports.

The Army wants to upgrade its helicopters -- namely the AH-64D Apache Longbow, the CH-47F Chinook and UH-60M Black Hawk -- to be optionally manned. The goal is to fly the UH-60M Black Hawk unmanned by the end of the year.

The Department of Defense estimates by 2025, half of all Army aircraft will be Optionally Piloted Vehicles.