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say could play a “critical role” in any conflict with Beijing over the Taiwan Strait.The PLA has also been retrofitting outdated aircraft to act as uncrewed drones, with both militaries unveiling similar systems within a month of each other last year.The S-70UAS U-Hawk, a fully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.