{"id":65403,"date":"2026-06-09T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=65403"},"modified":"2026-06-09T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:13:10","slug":"airbus-imitates-the-u-hawk-with-the-u145-an-unmanned-version-of-the-h145-helicopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/06\/09\/airbus-imitates-the-u-hawk-with-the-u145-an-unmanned-version-of-the-h145-helicopter\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus imitates the U-Hawk with the U145, an unmanned version of the H145 helicopter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are becoming an increasingly successful aspect of the international defense industry.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/03\/07\/the-qualities-of-the-h145m-chosen-to-be-the-main-helicopter-of-the-spanish-army\/\">The qualities of the H145M, chosen to be the main helicopter of the Spanish Army<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/13\/sikorsky-unveils-the-u-hawk-the-unmanned-variant-of-the-uh-60-black-hawk-helicopter\/\">Sikorsky unveils the U-Hawk, the unmanned variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/13\/sikorsky-unveils-the-u-hawk-the-unmanned-variant-of-the-uh-60-black-hawk-helicopter\/\">In October, Sikorsky unveiled the U-Hawk<\/a>, the unmanned version of its famous UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, <strong>completely eliminating the crew cabin and dedicating the entire interior of the aircraft to cargo<\/strong>, with an eye toward converting old US Army Black Hawks for logistical missions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325313753_b0ea727d6b_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325313753_5181ab11be_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A few months later, the U-Hawk has seen the emergence of a European competitor. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airbus.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2026-06-airbus-introduces-uncrewed-version-of-the-h145-the-u145\" target=\"_blank\">Yesterday, Airbus Helicopters announced the U145<\/a>, ahead of its presentation at the ILA air show in Berlin with a full-scale mock-up, of which they only showed the image you can see above. <strong>Today, Airbus Helicopters released this video of the U145:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The new Airbus U145\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3hWplZI9US8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Airbus Helicopters has indicated that <strong>the first flight of the U145 with a safety pilot on board will take place at the end of 2026<\/strong>, with its entry into service at the beginning of the next decade. This is a somewhat extended timeframe considering that <strong>Sikorki only took 10 months to go from developing the concept to a finished helicopter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325375464_6067463a09_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325375464_6cf7abece3_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The U145's basic design is identical to that of the U-Hawk: the crew positions are gone<\/strong>, and the helicopter's nose loses its glazed design, incorporating two side-opening doors. <strong>Unlike the U-Hawk, the U145 has a folding loading table<\/strong>, designed to facilitate loading with forklifts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325156266_5c5dd888e4_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325156266_b753c840c3_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Airbus has indicated that the U145 will be equipped with a suite of specialized sensors and artificial intelligence to achieve complete autonomy.<\/strong> The aircraft's interior will feature a dedicated cargo floor, similar to that of tactical transport aircraft, to facilitate cargo handling.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55324247392_0f42da04e8_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55324247392_646ecaffef_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The U145 will have a payload of 1,200 kg<\/strong>, according to Airbus Helicopters, as stated in the video. Yesterday, the European company announced that its maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) will be 3,800 kg. <strong>Furthermore, the aircraft will be aimed at both military and civilian customers<\/strong>, for missions such as disaster management, firefighting, armed reconnaissance, surveillance, drone carrier operations for aerial effects, and joint manned and unmanned aircraft operations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55324247382_8bff9e77d4_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55324247382_84d05e36f4_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the undeniable advantages of the U145 over the U-Hawk stems from the H145's design itself.<\/strong> Like other Airbus helicopters, it features two very useful rear cargo doors, for example, for loading stretchers during medical evacuations. <strong>Airbus Helicopters points out that the helicopter will have 360\u00b0 access for loading<\/strong>, unlike the U-Hawk, which lacks rear cargo doors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325156301_9749e65c42_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55325156301_8e39b3575f_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The European company has already identified a potential buyer: <em>\"In the United States, <strong>Airbus U.S. Space & Defense is, together with its partners Shield AI, L3 Harris and Parry Lab, offering the US Marine Corps a dedicated US development, the MQ-72C<\/strong>, which is a fully autonomous variant of the well proven Lakota UH-72B, tailored to their specific needs.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Images: Airbus Helicopters.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are becoming an increasingly successful aspect of the international defense industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19630,15961,11546],"tags":[13466,27215,673,23048],"class_list":["post-65403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1a-plana-defense-eng","category-bloque-6-english","category-military-aviation","tag-airbus-helicopters-h145","tag-airbus-helicopters-u145","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-united-states-marine-corps-aviation-usmca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}