Sikorsky wins Marine Corps contract for R66-based autonomous resupply helicopter

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded a $15.5 million contract to Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, based in Stratford, Conn., a business unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle – Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL) Increment 2 program.

The selected offering is the R66 TURBINETRUCK, an autonomous cargo configuration developed through collaboration between Sikorsky and Robinson Unmanned, integrating Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system with the R66 airframe produced by Robinson Helicopter Company.

The MARV-EL program is intended to fill a capability gap between small tactical uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and larger cargo aircraft, providing a middleweight uncrewed logistics platform for distributed sustainment operations. The system is designed to operate from austere forward locations, ship decks, and unimproved landing zones, supporting expeditionary resupply missions where crewed aircraft or ground logistics are constrained or exposed to threat conditions.

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Robinson R66

The baseline Robinson R66 is a light, single-engine turbine helicopter powered by a Rolls-Royce RR300 turboshaft engine, producing approximately 300 shaft horsepower. The aircraft is a six-seat commercial platform with a conventional rotor system and is widely used in civil utility, training, and light transport roles. In its standard configuration, it is pilot-operated and not autonomous.

In the MARV-EL configuration, Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system replaces onboard piloting functions with software-driven flight control, mission planning, and sensor-based navigation. MATRIX is a flight autonomy architecture originally developed for optionally piloted and uncrewed rotary-wing operations, and has been demonstrated on multiple Sikorsky platforms, including the autonomous S-70UAS U-Hawk concept derived from the Black Hawk family.

Operators enter mission objectives via a digital interface, after which the system generates a flight plan and executes navigation using onboard sensing and autonomous flight-control algorithms. The system is designed to reduce operator workload and enable cargo delivery without an onboard crew.

Cargo specs

The R66 TURBINETRUCK is designed to carry payloads of 1,300 to 2,500 pounds over approximately 100 nautical miles, depending on configuration and environmental conditions. The payload integration and airframe modification effort focuses on converting the light utility helicopter into an autonomous logistics platform while preserving the baseline aircraft's cost structure and commercial maintainability.

The MARV-EL effort builds on prior Marine Corps experimentation with autonomous logistics systems, including the Aerial Logistics Connector Phase 1 effort completed in 2025, as well as Sikorsky’s broader autonomy demonstrations under its MATRIX program portfolio. Industry participation in autonomy development for rotorcraft logistics has also included parallel efforts across the defense sector exploring uncrewed sustainment concepts, particularly in support of distributed maritime and expeditionary operations.

The company said the MATRIX architecture is designed to be platform-agnostic, enabling integration across multiple rotary-wing airframes with different performance and payload characteristics while maintaining a common autonomy software layer.

Robinson Unmanned will deliver the first R66 TURBINETRUCK to Sikorsky for integration, test, and evaluation, followed by demonstration activities supporting MARV-EL Increment 2 objectives.