In a recent test, a soldier with no aviation experience created flight plans and flew Black Hawk helicopter missions using a handheld tablet while standing on the ground.

Known as an optionally piloted vehicle, or OPV, the Black Hawk was developed by Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and tested in August during Northern Strike 25-2, a military exercise with real-world missions that took place at Camp Grayling, Michigan, according to a Lockheed Martin news release.

The test was conducted by an Army National Guard sergeant first class who was trained in under an hour on how to independently plan, command and execute OPV Black Hawk missions using the handheld tablet powered by MATRIX aircraft autonomy system technology.

MATRIX gives operators control of advanced aviation, a capability once reserved for trained pilots, enabling resupply, personnel recovery and contested logistics missions in dangerous or low-visibility areas without putting human life at risk, the news release said.

The test comes at a time when the Army is overhauling its aviation formations to minimize costs associated with high-maintenance piloted aircraft and leverage autonomous technology to reduce risk to soldiers by carrying out optionally piloted missions.

During the tests, which took place over the course of about a week, the NCO directed the vehicle’s payload to a location 70 nautical miles away and commanded multiple precision airborne drops. The test marked the first time the OPV Black Hawk was operated under the full control of a real warfighter rather than a trained test pilot or engineer, the news release said.

While the soldier-directed flight was a major milestone in the development of the vehicle, other firsts for the OPV Black Hawk during Northern Strike included three types of cargo delivery missions and a medical evacuation exercise.

From a U.S. Coast Guard vessel on Lake Huron, the soldier planned and executed a Class 1 resupply mission from 70 nautical miles away. After the cargo was unloaded, he used the tablet interface to direct the OPV Black Hawk in racetrack patterns over the lake while soldiers onboard completed two precision parachute drops at different altitudes.

In a sling load exercise, the NCO conducted the first-ever autonomous hookup of an external load while airborne. Using its hover stability capabilities, the OPV Black Hawk held its position while soldiers attached a 2,900-pound water tank without pilot intervention.

A third exercise saw the OPV Black Hawk complete six autonomous hovering hookups to transport high-mobility artillery rocket system launch tubes to an alternate landing zone. The soldier then used the aircraft to conduct a simulated personnel recovery, including a tail-to-tail patient transfer to a piloted Black Hawk at an unimproved landing site, marking once again the first time an untrained soldier commanded an autonomous medical evacuation recovery from inside the OPV Black Hawk aircraft, according to the release.

“With lives on the line, Sikorsky’s MATRIX flight autonomy system can transform how military operators perform their missions,” Rich Benton, vice president and general manager of Sikorsky, said in the release.