Black Hawk to drone: new frontier in US rivalry with Beijing over Taiwan Strait?

The US is converting Cold War-era helicopters into drones, a move defence experts say could play a “critical role” in any conflict with Beijing over the Taiwan Strait. The PLA has also been retrofitting outdated aircraft to act as uncrewed drones, with both militaries unveiling similar systems within a month of each other last year. The S-70UAS U-Hawk, a fully autonomous helicopter based on the UH-60 Black Hawk, was first showcased last October at an annual American military event, where it was pitched for high-risk cargo resupply and tactical missions. It was one of the key products introduced at this week’s Singapore Airshow by Sikorsky, a US helicopter maker and subsidiary of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. Frank Crisafulli, director of global pursuits at Sikorsky and a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, said the driver for U-Hawk demand in the Asia-Pacific could be seen “geopolitically” – from the “perception of what the threat is in the region”. The UH-60 Black Hawk is a medium-lift military utility helicopter, first designed by Sikorsky in the 1970s for the US Army. It also has variants adapted for various military and civilian operations, including the S-70B/C Seahawk, a maritime military variant for export markets. The Black Hawk family is among major US-made rotary-wing systems exported worldwide, including to Asia-Pacific partners such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Buyers include even the People’s Liberation Army, which acquired 24 S-70s in the 1980s and continues to operate them on a limited basis. The U-Hawk is a “cockpitless” Black Hawk, according to Ramsey Bentley, Sikorsky’s director of advanced concepts and strategic requirements, who spoke at the same Singapore media briefing on Wednesday. He said the aircraft was capable of delivering a total payload of 10,000lbs (4,536kg), including one HIMARS multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) pod or two Navy strike missiles. “We removed the cockpit … What this did is this really opened up an additional 25 per cent cargo space in the [U-Hawk]. Now this is a fully autonomous UAS [unmanned aircraft system]. It is operated with a tablet user interface, and that tablet user interface allows the operator to pre-plan missions,” said Bentley, also a former military helicopter pilot. “So when you start talking about concession logistics, you know this is a greater capability than a crewed Black Hawk would be.” The HIMARS has been operating in Singapore and various US bases across the Asia-Pacific region. Taiwan received its first 11 units of the MLRS last year, and plans to operate more than 50. Sikorsky’s new concept for converting legacy platforms like the Black Hawk into uncrewed rotorcraft arrives amid the growing role of UAS in modern warfare – particularly as China rapidly expands its drone fleets. The PLA has been undertaking such conversions with Taiwan in mind. Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise the self-governed island as independent. However, Washington is opposed to any forcible change to the status quo and is legally bound to supply Taipei with weapons for defence. During the Changchun Airshow last September, the PLA unveiled a combat drone converted from a retired 1950s Soviet-designed J-6 fighter jet, possibly used for attrition warfare and drone swarms because of its lower cost compared with more advanced UAS. The conversion raised eyebrows in Taiwan, where observers said large numbers of these uncrewed fighter jets could wear down the island’s air defence. Timothy Heath, a senior defence researcher at Rand Corporation, a US-based think tank, said that drones, including those converted from manned aircraft, had the “additional advantage” of increased range as they no longer needed space for pilots. “Thus, uncrewed helicopters could be very attractive to militaries operating over the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.” “Drones are also cheap enough that they can serve as the new ‘cannon fodder’, permitting militaries such as China’s to flood the battlespace with drones to overwhelm enemy defences.” The US has focused on ramping up drone production with Asia-Pacific allies to counter the PLA’s uncrewed-system dominance over the Taiwan Strait. The US National Defence Authorisation Act for 2026, passed in December, reportedly directs the Pentagon to “seek to engage” Taiwan on a joint programme for fielding “uncrewed systems and counter-uncrewed capabilities, including co-development and co-production” for both their militaries. Heath said that the US military was “likely very interested” in developing drones and uncrewed helicopters to support long-range operations and to carry out missions formerly conducted by manned aircraft, such as anti-submarine operations, reconnaissance, and air attack. “Drones and uncrewed helicopters deployed from allied bases could play a critical role in disrupting PLA operations and enabling US military forces to fight in the Taiwan Strait,” Heath said. “The main advantage of the U-Hawk over crewed helicopters is that it could be deployed in more dangerous situations, operate at longer ranges, or over a longer duration since the human pilot is no longer a consideration.” Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said China’s “rapid” expansion of drone capabilities had pushed Asia-Pacific countries to deepen cooperation with the US to keep pace with the new operational environment. This was especially so with the maritime environments such as the Taiwan Strait and the contested South China Sea, she said. “Here, PLA swarms would make traditional helicopter flight extremely dangerous, especially near hotspots, and China’s emphasis on drones as first tools for surveillance and strike missions reduces the survivability of manned helicopters.”

Black Hawk to drone: new frontier in US rivalry with Beijing over Taiwan Strait?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Why US drones and uncrewed helicopters deployed from allied bases could play a ‘critical role’ in disrupting PLA operations

Why US drones and uncrewed helicopters deployed from allied bases could play a ‘critical role’ in disrupting PLA operations