Robinson

The U.S. Marine Corps is set to test at least two new autonomous cargo helicopters, as it seeks to field platforms that can rapidly resupply Marines in contested environments. The service recently awarded contracts for two such platforms, one being the R66 Turbinetruck that inserts Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy system in the proven Robinson R66 airframe. The second is the Uncrewed 505, a development of the Bell 505 in a program led by Near Earth Autonomy, in collaboration with Bell Textron, Moog Inc., and XP Services.

This is all part of ongoing efforts to develop uncrewed logistics platforms that the Marines can use in contested environments, something that is of particular relevance as the branch looks to the requirements for a future conflict with China in the Pacific.

Lockheed Martin announced yesterday that its Sikorsky subsidiary and Robinson Unmanned had received a contract for the Turbinetruck from the Marine Corps. This comes under the Marines’ new-look Autonomous Aerial Logistics Program Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle — Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL). The contract is worth $15.5 million and covers Increment 2 of MARV-EL.

“As we expand the MATRIX family, we also extend the reach of uncrewed solutions for both civil and military customers,” said Rich Benton, vice president and general manager of Sikorsky. “The commercially developed R66 Turbinetruck is simple, economical, and re-configurable; ideal for high-risk, hard-to-reach environments, where keeping personnel out of harm’s way is essential.”

“Our partnership with Sikorsky brings the trusted performance and reliability of the R66 platform into the unmanned logistics arena,” added David Smith, president and CEO of Robinson Helicopter Company. “The R66 Turbinetruck represents a significant step forward in expanding proven rotorcraft into scalable, autonomous cargo solutions for demanding operational environments. Together, we are delivering a game‑changing capability that will enhance warfighter readiness and open new opportunities for safe, reliable, and affordable autonomous transport.”

Robinson Unmanned | The Future of Autonomous Rotorcraft is Here

The R66 Turbinetruck puts together the R66 airframe from the Robinson Helicopter Company, a single-turbine engine design that is best known as a five-seat light rotorcraft on the commercial market. The R66 was selected for the Turbinetruck application primarily on account of its reliability, low maintenance demands, and high level of versatility. The aircraft is currently in widespread civilian service as a trainer, passenger, and utility helicopter.

Combining the R66 airframe with Sikorsky’s MATRIX system provides the ability to perform autonomous uncrewed operations. MATRIX has previously been proven in a U.S. Army UH-60M helicopter, giving it a ‘robotic brain,’ and the culmination of a series of tests stretching back years now that have been steadily working on ever-greater pilot-optional capabilities for the Black Hawk family. As we have noted in the past, the same technology could easily find its way onto other aircraft, as evidenced by the Turbinetruck.

Sikorsky and DARPA Autonomous Black Hawk Flies Logistics and Rescue Missions Without Pilots on Board

Lockheed Martin says the Turbinetruck is intended to give the Marines “flexible, affordable and rapid combat sustainment,” with its primary roles including the delivery of ammunition, medical supplies, and other essential equipment directly to the troops that need it. These critical loads need to be supplied “regardless of terrain, weather, or enemy threat,” the company adds.

According to Robinson Helicopter, the Turbinetruck can carry a load of 1,300 pounds internally, or external loads supported via a cargo hook. The internal cargo compartment is accessed via front clamshell doors and a right-hand baggage door. A total useful load of 1,500 pounds can be transported, and the aircraft has a range of more than 325 nautical miles.

When it comes to MARV-EL, this now stipulates an uncrewed aircraft that can carry a logistic payload of between 1,300 and 2,500 pounds to a combat radius of 100 nautical miles, operating through a common digital handheld device.

In an operational scenario, the mission objectives would be entered into the Turbinetruck using a digital tablet. The system would then automatically create a flight plan, using sensors and algorithms to guide the helicopter safely to the target location.

The Turbinetruck would allow the Marines to conduct critical logistics missions without having to put any additional personnel at risk, as would be the case if crewed rotorcraft were employed at the tactical edge of the battlefield. Crewed rotorcraft also come with increased demands on maintenance and availability. Meanwhile, crew-rest cycles might mean that the aircraft have to stay on the ground during high-tempo operations, while these assets will inevitably be in heavy demand for all kinds of other missions in any kind of high-end fight.

A video outlining the Robinson R66 Army Trainer, a crewed version of the helicopter offered to the U.S. Army schoolhouse:

Robinson R66 Army Trainer Helicopter | Press Conference & Official Reveal | AAAA in Nashville

At the same time, the MARV-EL concept is especially tailored for the Indo-Pacific theater, in which Marines and other U.S. military forces would be expected to fight from and around austere forward operating bases — a concept known as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations — as well as unimproved landing zones, and from the decks of ships.

In this context, the Turbinetruck, and the MARV-EL program, more generally, hope to fill a notable capability gap between small tactical drones and larger crewed airlifters. This is something that Lockheed Martin describes as a “middleweight” uncrewed logistics platform capable.

Robinson Unmanned will deliver the first R66 Turbinetruck to Sikorsky for integration, test and evaluation, and demonstration. At that point, the aircraft will undertake capability demonstrations to prove out the MATRIX system in the R66 airframe.

Since MATRIX is platform-agnostic and has an open architecture design, it is intended to be easily integrated into various airframes.

As for the rival Uncrewed 505, this takes the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopter and combines it with Near Earth’s Captain autonomous system, and Moog’s Genesys avionics. The 505 is also a single-turbine helicopter that is in use in similar training, passenger, and utility roles as the R66.

The MARV-EL Increment 2 program will also see the Uncrewed 505 prototype developed for the Marine Corps. Near Earth says it will spend the next 36 months integrating and flight-testing the autonomous flight system in the Uncrewed 505, before progressing from early demonstrations to full mission capability.

“The program is to develop an uncrewed aerial logistics aircraft for where the risk and need are highest,” said Lyle Chamberlain, CTO of Near Earth. “We are combining our Captain autonomy architecture with a proven Bell 505 platform to move cargo without putting Marines in harm’s way. To be as intuitive as possible, we are designing the aircraft around existing Marine Corps workflows. Operators will be able to request, dispatch, and manage missions through familiar command-and-control pathways, including MAGTAB and MANGL integration. At the same time, cargo can be loaded with standard pallet jacks and forklifts. This approach reduces infrastructure burden and helps make autonomous resupply practical for expeditionary operations.”

Near Earth says the Uncrewed 505 is optimized for efficient transportability, with two aircraft fitting inside a C-130 cargo aircraft with minimal disassembly.

Other aircraft have previously emerged out of the MARV-EL program.

These included the Kargo UAV, a rotary-wing drone from the Kaman Corporation, which previously developed an optionally crewed version of its K-Max helicopter.

KARGO UAV | Transforming Expeditionary Logistics

Notably, Kaman partnered with Near Earth Autonomy for the autonomy system for both the Kargo UAV and the optionally crewed K-Max.

Another competitor for MARV-EL was the SeaOnyx from Leidos. In 2023, it was announced that Leidos had won a Marine Corps contract to develop a prototype of this autonomous resupply vehicle under the Medium Unmanned Logistics Systems — Air (MULS-A) program, which later became MARV-EL.

However, neither of these platforms met Marine Corps requirements, leading to MARV-EL being recompeted. At the same time, the previous requirements (including delivering a logistics payload of 300-600 pounds within a radius of 25 to 100 nautical miles to a combat area) were made more ambitious, increasing cargo payload and range.

Overall, MARV-EL again highlights the Marines’ growing focus on expeditionary warfare in contested environments, in the Pacific theater especially. With their versatile airframes, the R66 Turbinetruck and the Uncrewed 505 could be adapted for other missions, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare (EW), communications relay, and search and rescue. All of these are growth areas for the Marines specifically and the U.S. military more generally.

A video outlining the Bell 505, as offered for the U.S. Army Flight School Next requirement:

Bell 505: Ideal Trainer

At the same time, the R66 already has a foothold with the U.S. military, with TH-66 Sage used to train U.S. Army and Navy helicopter operators, under contract. The Army is also now looking at both the R66 and the Bell 505 for its Flight School Next training helicopter program.

Whichever design or designs are ultimately selected for the MARV-EL requirement, the Marines can expect a new medium-weight logistics platform that bridges the gap between smaller drones and larger crewed aircraft currently in use. At the same time, it will help reduce risk by keeping more fixed-wing and helicopter crews out of harm’s way.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

History textbooks often include the story of the Underground Railroad, an organized network of secret routes, places and people that guided enslaved populations from the South to abolitionist Northern states.

However, less is known about the underground railroad that ran southbound to Mexico. But one live-looped musical is unearthing that hidden history, one beat at a time.

Co-created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, “Mexodus” tells the fictional story of Henry, who evades his capture by fleeing Texas across the Rio Grande. After a near fatality, he is saved by Carlos, a farmer and former combat medic battling his own trauma from the Mexican-American War. Together they form solidarity, despite social, racial and political strains plaguing both sides of the border.

Following its off-Broadway run at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City, the hip-hop and bolero-infused musical directed by David Mendizábal will open at the Pasadena Playhouse stage July 8 and run until Aug. 2. But for history buffs and musical enthusiasts alike, a sonically richer version filled with sound effects of the musical airs exclusively on Audible today, April 16.

The idea for “Mexodus” first came to Brian Quijada — playwright, actor and composer behind “Where Did We Sit on the Bus?,” “Kid Prince and Pablo” and “Somewhere Over the Border” — when reading a 2018 article on History.com about the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 enslaved individuals that escaped the American South for freedom in Mexico, though some researchers estimate that number to be higher.

“My parents crossed the border undocumented in the late 1970s, so I think I’ve always been fascinated with writing immigration stories,” Quijada said. “The reason that this story attracted me was because it’s like a reverse border story, but I also knew that it wasn’t my story to tell so I sat on it for a long time.”

Quijada bookmarked the article until he met Robinson — a performer at Berkeley Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theater Company, Mosaic Theater and writer and composer of “Santa Claus Is Comin’: A Motown Christmas Revue” and “R&J: Fire on the Bayou” — at an actor-musician conference weeks before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were the only actors-musicians of color in the room, listening in on conversations about how one should audition for musicals like “Once,” “Million Dollar Quartet,” which typically center white storylines.

“We kind of looked at each other and we’re like, ‘we don’t really belong here,’” said Quijada, who invited Robinson to take part in “Mexodus” during the pandemic shutdown. The first iteration of the project was as a mixtape.

The musical edge of “Mexodus” hinges on live looping, a recording and playback technique where a sound is repeated and then layered (think Justin Bieber’s solo performance of “Yukon” at the 2026 Grammy Awards). Physically, both Quijada and Robinson’s characters have to pick up a guitar, record it, then play the drum set and run to the bass. “ It’s pretty labor-intensive,” Quijada said.

“I think Brian and I are artists in this way, like various people of color, where it’s like, no one else is gonna do it for me, so I can do it all by myself,” Robinson said.

There’s also a more dramaturgical, meta reason for the loop, which follows a four chord structure throughout the piece, set in both 1851 and present day.

“The looping shows you that there’s not much difference between 1851 and 2026,” Robinson said. “We just keep finding ourselves in a loop and like maybe a sound is in that wasn’t there before. Maybe another sound is added, but it’s still the same four chord structure that has been happening in this country for all existence.”

In 2010, the U.S. National Park Service outlined a possible runaway route stretching on the Camino Real de la Tejas between Natchitoches, La., to Monclova, Mexico. Still, it is unclear how organized the underground railroad heading to Mexico truly was, the Associated Press reported in 2020, with archives destroyed in a fire and sites along the path abandoned.

In 2024 the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery in San Juan, Texas — which are part of a ranch owned by interracial couple Nathaniel Jackson and Matilda Hicks — were recognized by the U.S. National Park Service for serving as a gateway to freedom in Mexico.

Other Texas couples alongside the border— including interracial abolitionist couple Ferdinand Webber and Silvia Hector — aided enslaved people in their pursuits to reach Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, while Texas was still part of the country.

Fears surrounding the Mexican government’s attempts to abolish slavery led to the formation of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and its eventual annexation to the United States by 1845; records also show that American slave owners would head down to Mexico to kidnap formerly enslaved individuals, according to USC historian Alice Baumgartner, who wrote about it in her 2020 book “South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War.”

A database by the Texas Runaway Slave Project, which found listings for 2,500 runaways across various Texas newspapers from the 1840s through the 1860s, also documents the frequented journey to Mexico.

Slavery in the U.S. wouldn’t be officially abolished until 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

“I was also really intimidated by the amount of research that I would have to do to write this piece because at the time back [between 2017 and 2020], [researchers] were just beginning to uncover a lot of this,” Quijada said.

Themes of racism — including anti-Blackness in the Latino community — oppression and resistance are woven throughout “Mexodus,” which since its debut in 2023 at the Baltimore Center Stage/Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, D.C., has been making viewers aware of the little-known history.

Robinson recalled how one Black woman came up to him after the show to let him know she believed in Trump’s border wall.

“I got nervous, but she was like, ‘after seeing this, I’m realizing that there’s something trying to convince me of that.’ And I’m like, yes!” said Robinson. “I’m like, this is good. This is good. We started you somewhere. Wow.”

The pair hope that amid all the dark news circulating around the world — and the traumatic, historical themes interlaced in “Mexodus” — the existence of this piece of art can be a glimmer of hope and joy for the future of both Black and brown communities.

“ I need you all to see the truth, but we’re gonna try and dance anyway,” Robinson said.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and today is a very special day, so it’s time for the annual Jackie Robinson newsletter.

On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field in front of crowd of 26,623. He walked and scored a run in the Dodgers’ 5–3 victory. Thus began one of the most amazing careers in sports history. Robinson broke the color barrier and faced challenges few major leaguers ever had to endure.

Some players on his team didn’t want to play alongside him, starting a petition saying they would rather not be his teammate. Manager Leo Durocher’s response: “I don’t care if the guy is yellow or Black, or if he has stripes like a … zebra. I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What’s more, I say he can make all of us rich. And if any of you can’t use the money, I will see that you are traded.”

Players on other teams called him every racial insult. Some opposing managers were worse. Fans, some of them little kids parroting what their parents were saying, called him vile names. And Robinson had, and could have, only one response: No response. Give in and lose his temper, then the racists would say “See, his kind aren’t strong enough to play in the majors.” It would be used as leverage to kick him out and keep the majors “pure.” For a good example of what Robinson endured, watch “42” starring the late, great Chadwick Boseman.

So, Robinson took it. But he not only had to take it, he also had to play at a high level to prove Black people could play in the majors. He ran the bases with abandon. He excelled as a fielder no matter where they put him. He led the Dodgers to victory after victory, including their first World Series title in 1955.

And let’s not forget his wife, Rachel, who will turn 104 in July. She was a source of strength for Jackie and underwent verbal abuse and threats herself. She is an amazing woman and deserves full credit for her role in all of this. I think it’s safe to say that Jackie wouldn’t have been the same without her.

Robinson was a standout player at whichever position the Dodgers played him. On the bases, he was a terror. He stole home 19 times in his career, tied with Bobby Bragan for the most since 1920.

Robinson was drafted into the Army in 1942. Stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., he was not allowed to play on the segregated camp baseball team. He was appointed morale officer for the Black troops at Fort Riley and later was re-assigned to Ford Hood, Texas. On July 6, 1944 he refused when a white bus driver told him to move to the back of the bus. The base provost marshal and military police supported the driver, and Robinson was subject to court-martial. He won the hearing and the Army decided to kick him out with an honorable discharge.

In 1945, Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, which is where Branch Rickey found him and signed him. The rest is history.

After he retired from baseball, Robinson became a leader in the Civil Rights movement. He was hired to serve as a vice president for Chock Full O’Nuts, the first Black man to be named a vice president of a major American company. In 1964, he co-founded Freedom National Bank of Harlem, created to financially help Black communities. In 1970, he founded the Jackie Robinson Construction Company, which built housing for low-income people.

In perhaps the most famous steal of home in history, Jackie Robinson steals home in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series. For the rest of his life, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said Robinson was out.

(John Rooney / Associated Press)

But let’s go back to his baseball career.

Imagine trying to do your job every day with thousands of people surrounding you, hurling racist taunts. Imagine going on the road and not being able to stay in the same place as your co-workers, but being forced to room with someone across town. Imagine having a wife and child who have to go through the same thing. Imagine a policeman coming into your workplace and threatening to arrest you and shut down your business unless you left, because they don’t appreciate “your kind” in their city. Imagine getting death threats every day in the mail.

Most people would not be able to do what Robinson did. He set the example that players such as Larry Doby of Cleveland, who broke the color barrier in the American League, were able to follow.

It’s sad that sometimes I will hear fans of other teams complain that Robinson’s No. 42 is retired and listed alongside the numbers of the legends from their team, because “he didn’t play for their team.”

Even now, some people try to find flaws that Robinson had to cut him down. What they don’t realize is that pointing out whatever flaws he had doesn’t make him seem less impressive — but even more impressive. It shows he was an imperfect man who performed one of the most perfect human achievements of all time.

But words don’t adequately describe what Jackie Robinson did or what he went through. They can’t. It’s embarrassing to even try.

What’s a good way to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day? Find anyone you know under the age of 18 and make sure they know who Jackie Robinson was and what he did. Don’t let his memory be forgotten. Show them the movie “42.” Give them a book on Robinson. Or sit down and talk to them about him. It’s the best gift you can give them.

In his own words

Some of the best quotes from Jackie Robinson:

“Plenty of times I wanted to haul off when somebody insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to hold to myself. I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.”

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.”

“There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.”

“During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake.”

“I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest Black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.”

“Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.”

“Negroes aren’t seeking anything which is not good for the nation as well as ourselves. In order for America to be 100% strong — economically, defensively and morally — we cannot afford the waste of having second- and third-class citizens.”

“Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment.”

“It kills me to lose. If I’m a troublemaker, and I don’t think that my temper makes me one, then it’s because I can’t stand losing. That’s the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.”

Jackie Robinson joins a picket line in Cleveland in 1960 to protest discrimination against Black people at southern lunch counters.

(Associated Press)

“When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ballgame is over, I certainly don’t take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn’t know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball.”

“Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.”

“I guess you’d call me an independent, since I’ve never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.”

“How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.”

“I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens.”

“Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.”

“The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.”

In the words of others

”A credit to baseball and to America.”
—Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers

“To do what he did has got to be the most tremendous thing I’ve ever seen in sports.”
—Pee Wee Reese, teammate of Jackie Robinson

“The greatest moment in the history of baseball.”
—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred

“He gave the Black community a sense of hope, a sense of pride.”
—John Lewis, civil rights leader

”I didn’t know baseball from pingpong. But the point was that he had broken in. I grew inches that day. I puffed out my chest. A Black person had made it against the most tremendous odds.”
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“Jackie’s character was much more important than his batting average.”
—Hank Aaron

”Jackie Robinson made his country and you and me and all of us a shade more free.”
—Roger Kahn, author of “The Boys of Summer”

“There’s a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me.”
—former President Barack Obama

“He knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of Blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don’t know how he held up. I know I never could have. He was the greatest competitor I have ever seen.”
—Duke Snider, teammate

”There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker than Jackie Robinson.”
—Rickey

“After the game, Jackie Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand. He said, ‘You’re a helluva ballplayer and you’ve got a great future.’ I thought that was a classy gesture, one I wasn’t then capable of making. I was a bad loser. What meant even more was what Jackie told the press, ‘Mantle beat us. He was the difference between the two teams. They didn’t miss DiMaggio.’ I have to admit, I became a Jackie Robinson fan on the spot. And when I think of that World Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had without doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game. And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma.”
—Mickey Mantle, on the 1952 World Series

”Jackie, we’ve got no army. There’s virtually nobody on our side. No owner, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I’m afraid that many fans may be hostile. We’ll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I am doing this because you’re a great ballplayer, and a fine gentleman.”
—Rickey

“Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson .”
—Willie Mays

“Give me five players like Robinson and a pitcher and I’ll beat any nine-man team in baseball.”
—former Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen

“He led America by example. He reminded our people of what was right and he reminded them of what was wrong. I think it can be safely said today that Jackie Robinson made the United States a better nation.”
—American League president Gene Budig

”Jackie Robinson is the best I’ve seen. Robinson is the perfect blend of ballplayer. He has creativeness and imagination. Every move he makes from the minute he steps onto the field is designed to beat the other club. He’s constantly asking himself, at bat or on the bases, ‘what can I do to beat the other guy?’ That’s the kind of ballplayer that wins pennants.”
—Fresco Thompson, assistant farm director for the Dodgers when Robinson played his first game

“If I were in Jackie Robinson’s shoes, I probably never would have made it.”
—Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson

”Today we must balance the tears of sorrow with the tears of joy. Mix the bitter with the sweet in death and life. Jackie as a figure in history was a rock in the water, creating concentric circles and ripples of new possibility. He was medicine. He was immunized by God from catching the diseases that he fought. The Lord’s arms of protection enabled him to go through dangers seen and unseen, and he had the capacity to wear glory with grace. Jackie’s body was a temple of God. An instrument of peace. We would watch him disappear into nothingness and stand back as spectators, and watch the suffering from afar. The mercy of God intercepted this process Tuesday and permitted him to steal away home, where referees are out of place, and only the supreme judge of the universe speaks.”
—Jesse Jackson, delivering a eulogy for Robinson

For more on Robinson, I recommend visiting jackierobinson.org, where several of the above quotes and much more can be found.

And finally

Jackie Robinson is interviewed by Dick Cavett. Watch and listen here. And you can watch “42” for free on Youtube. Watch and listen here.

Until next time….

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Huddersfield Giants have sacked head coach Luke Robinson after a poor start to the 2026 Super League season.

Giants have lost all of their opening five matches, leaving them without a point and bottom of the table.

Robinson began his second spell as Giants boss in September 2024, replacing Ian Watson, and went on to lose his first nine matches in charge before finally tasting success with a narrow victory against Hull FC at Magic Weekend last May.

Hampered by financial limitations, Robinson eventually guided the club to 10th in the final Super League standings last year.

This season, the 41-year-old has had to deal with a number of injuries to key players, including star full-back George Flanagan Jr, one of 16 first-team members who were unavailable during an injury crisis labelled as “unprecedented” by the club earlier this month.

Robinson was left looking a forlorn figure following his side’s defeat by Bradford Bulls on Friday night, which has ended up being his final match in charge.

He previously, but briefly, acted as interim head coach of Giants during the end of the Covid-affected 2020 season after Simon Woolford resigned, taking charge of the final eight matches of the campaign.

Director of rugby Andy Kelly will take charge of the first team until Robinson’s successor is appointed.

Huddersfield continue their Super League campaign with a trip to league leaders Wigan on Saturday [15:00 GMT].

“Well, I guess it’s a brother thing.”

The Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson is reflecting on his rollercoaster relationship with his younger sibling, guitarist Rich.

Their explosive chemistry once earned the outfit a fitting accolade — “The Most Rock ’n’ Roll Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the World”.

Chris is first to admit they’ve had their ups and downs since forming in 1984 under their original name, Mr Crowe’s Garden, as schoolkids in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Rich and I, for better or worse, were stubborn and arrogant but always strong believers in the art,” he admits.

“This has always been our path and, no matter what, we have to do it like this.

claws out

Real reason for Pussycat Dolls’ snub of Carmit Bachar & Jessica Sutta revealed

SENT HOME

British band leave fans fuming as they cancel gig minutes before its due to start

“In rock ’n’ roll, there are plenty of show dogs, pure bred and beautiful. We’re f***ing feral.”

Following in the footsteps of other warring brothers — Ray and Dave Davies or Noel and Liam Gallagher — the Robinsons weren’t on speaking terms for five years after their so-called “contractual obligations” tour ended in 2014.

“Sometimes, you have to take your lumps,” continues Chris, employing that very American phrase for suffering setbacks. “But, right now, we’re in the zone. The chemistry is 100 per cent there.

“The way we feel goes right back to when we started — it’s f*** it, just play it — even if we are more well-mannered.”

The Black Crowes’ big reunion began in late 2019 with warm-up shows for a planned 30th anniversary tour of their debut album, the seminal Shake Your Money Maker, the following year.

But the pandemic slammed on the brakes before the dates finally happened across the US in 2021, uncorking the band’s celebrated freewheeling energy.

Back to the live arena came Jealous Again, Hard To Handle, She Talks To Angels and Twice As Hard, songs that somehow bottled up the band’s influences — Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Little Feat among them — but still refreshingly their own.

In 2024, with their creative juices flowing, The Black Crowes released their first album of original material in 15 years, Happiness Bastards.

Now the Robinsons are back again — with a bang.

The follow-up, A Pound Of Feathers, comes tearing out of the blocks with the rocket-fuelled, riff-driven Profane Prophecy, setting the tone for another of The Black Crowes’ “love letters to rock and roll”.

The album arrives with some sound advice — “This isn’t a record you play on Sunday morning, this is a f***ing Saturday night burner!”

In a world where smoothly produced pop dominates the airwaves, The Black Crowes are unashamedly sticking two fingers up at it.

“None of what’s going on in that world is relevant to me,” decides Chris, “and rock ’n’ roll is still huge for millions and millions of people.”

He is talking to me via video call from Aspen, Colorado, the premier ski resort in the States, playground of the rich and famous.

“My wife is an avid skier. She’s the Franz Klammer of the family,” he reports with a reference to the Austrian downhill legend.

“I get to do the cooking, the reading and the hanging out.” (And talking to people like me about The Black Crowes). Brother Rich is at home in Nashville and begins his call by apologising for being under the weather.

“I’m going to be coughing randomly,” he says. “I’m in the middle of flu that’s going around.”

After clearing his throat, Rich, the less flamboyant one who lets his guitar wizardry do most of his talking, gamely picks up on Chris’s theme.

“When we got back together, we both agreed we needed to do it properly,” he affirms.

“We knew that bringing back a toxic dynamic wouldn’t be healthy for anyone.

“We couldn’t have the overarching idea that when Chris and Rich get together, it’s a bad thing.

“We’ve always written all the songs, we own the name so coming back with a more mature approach has been very helpful.”

Rich acknowledges that the music landscape for the older, wiser Black Crowes is vastly different from when they started out. “There’s a bunch of people in the industry who like to think rock ’n’ roll is dead,” he says.

“But then there’s a bunch of people trying to keep it alive. Guns N’ Roses, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Def Leppard are still selling out stadiums.

“Tens of millions of people still want to see bands like them. Rock ’n’ roll is one thing that no one could tame.

“And it’s still like that for us. We can go into a studio with almost nothing and, in a week, make a record.

“There’s a human, organic quality to rock ’n’ roll. We don’t have auto-tune and we don’t have to set our s**t to a grid.”

Looking back at their unfettered past, Chris exclaims: “I have to say I’m so f***ing proud of The Black Crowes, man!

“Rich and I started this band when we were teenagers in Mom and Dad’s house, as a vehicle to write songs.

“And we found our way to being musicians and performers.”

Yet the creation of A Pound Of Feathers has still blown Chris away, most notably because of the stellar contributions from Rich.

The album was made in double-quick time, carried along by the brothers’ spontaneous fusion of riffs and lyrics.

Chris says: “I’ve been on stage and sat in studios my whole life with my brother playing amazing guitar.

“But, with this album, I sat there with my mouth hanging open.

“Granted I’m very close to the flame but everything he did, I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s taking it to a new place.’”

During the sessions, The Black Crowes were visited by Chris’s friend, Todd Snider, the singer/songwriter who died last November from pneumonia aged just 59.

Chris cherished the chance to hang out with Todd — and to get some memorable feedback from him.

“He was a storyteller, a real poet, and he and I had a great friendship. He also really liked The Black Crowes.

“He asked if he could come and check out the recording. I went, ‘Dude, yeah fine, but you’re going to be the only one here’. So he sat there taking in me and Rich putting music together.

“At the end of the day, he said, ‘Are you f***ing warlocks? Is this some kind of ESP or is it a parlour trick? You don’t say anything yet, 30 minutes later, there’s this massive song blasting out of the speakers’.”

For Rich, the studio is his happy place. “I’ve always loved being in a studio,” he says.

“It’s where you bring to ­fruition all the things you have in your head.

“With this record, we came in without any concrete ideas. By allowing ourselves just to play in the sandbox, it became fun and exciting.”

Rich gives a shoutout to producer Jay Joyce, who also helmed Happiness Bastards.

He says: “Nine and a half times out of ten, he agrees with us when we’re excited about something.

“He’s there with us, not bogging us down by trying to insert himself when its unnecessary.”

So what of the songs? There’s the aforementioned opener Profane Prophecy which captures the unvarnished sound of The Black Crowes’ live mayhem, yet recorded in the calmer confines of a studio.

You hear Chris nodding to past rock ’n’ roll excesses by hollering, tongue firmly in cheek, “My pedigree in debauchery is my claim to fame.”

He smiles, “Of course I have to embrace that life. That’s why I sing, ‘I eat casino breakfast off the kitchen floor’.”

But he maintains that while giving “a vision of a debauched rock ’n’ roller”, he’s also “confusing fact with fiction”.

The four-minute shindig concludes with the ensemble chant of the phrase that yielded the album title, “a pound of feathers or a pound of lead”.

Chris got the line from In Here The World Begins, a song by long-defunct British electro-pop band Broadcast.

“I loved the phrase and what it could mean because a pound is a pound,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s lead or feathers. There’s some weird wisdom to it.”

We turn our attention to Cruel Streak, pounding rock underpinned by funky rhythm.

“I’m adjacent to funk at all times,” says Chris. “Growing up in Atlanta, there was this multi­racial band called Mother’s Finest who played heavy funk with ‘Baby Jean’ Kennedy as lead singer.

“There’s a lot of Mother’s Finest in The Black Crowes.”

On the R&B-flavoured It’s Like That, which comes with heavy basslines and a hint of reggae, the brothers employed an amphibian guest, which, as Chris explains, fits with their anything goes attitude.

“I was staying in Nashville, and the doors were open. I heard this frog, so I recorded him. That’s my Nashville rasta frog on the solo.”

Rich says: “There are tree frogs all over the South. They were blaring one night and Chris said, ‘Man, I want to use that sound’.

“So he took his phone and pressed record. We found the right space for it on the song.” On the loose, laidback country-tinged Pharmacy Chronicles, recalling the vibe of the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St., Chris sings “let the demons find you” because, he insists, we mustn’t think everything is “sugar-coated, glossy and gorgeous”.

“Especially something as messy as a 40-year career in rock ’n’ roll,” he adds. “I can’t believe some of the s**t I was doing. Get some surgical gloves and get to it!”

But Chris is not one to dwell on the past, with all its euphoric highs and crashing lows. “I am devoid of nostalgia,” he says.

“I like to think I interact with the world as a poet. I’m always writing — it could be because I overheard a conversation at an airport check-in.

“I’m no Bruce Springsteen,” he confesses. “But I connect with the world through whatever inspires me.”

And, as he puts it, “a lot of the darkness that is the United States right now” informs A Pound Of Feathers.

It explains why final track Doomsday Doggerel with its line “a front row seat to the end of times” is in stark contrast to the closing song on Happiness Bastards.

“On that last record, Kindred Friend was a beautiful pastoral thing with harmonica, about me and Rich, the band and our audience,” says Chris.

“Doomsday Doggerel is much darker. We haven’t remembered lessons from our past and the f***ing racism means we’re operating at a very low frequency.

“I just hope that someone can play this record on a Saturday night, keep out the low frequency and get a better hum going.”

As Pharmacy Chronicles ebbs to a close, you hear a defiant chorus of “the good times never end”.

As far as Chris and Rich and the rest of The Black Crowes family are concerned, rock ’n’ roll is the perfect antidote to personal and universal turmoil.

“We’re loud, we can be sloppy but we are like an old cartoon of two people fighting on a train,” says Chris.

“The train goes round a bend, leaning all the way over a cliff, but then it comes back up. That’s us.”

THE BLACK CROWES

A Pound Of Feathers

★★★★☆