Northrop Grumman has completed the first fully autonomous flight of its YFQ-48A Talon Blue aircraft, including taxiing, take-off, in-flight manoeuvres and landing, as the US defence contractor seeks to accelerate the development of lower-cost autonomous systems.
Developed using company investment, Talon Blue features a modular design and advanced manufacturing techniques intended to reduce costs and enable faster production without compromising mission capability, Northrop Grumman said.
The flight builds on the company’s seven decades of experience in autonomous systems and more than 500,000 autonomous flight hours. Data and lessons from the programme are expected to inform the development of future autonomous platforms.
“Our customers made it clear they need autonomous systems that can be fielded faster and more affordably without sacrificing mission effectiveness. We listened,” said Craig Woolston, vice-president and general manager of research and advanced design at Northrop Grumman.
“Talon Blue’s first flight is one step towards a new generation of autonomous capabilities. Every flight and lesson strengthens our broader autonomy work and sharpens what comes next,” he added.
Talon Blue is part of Northrop Grumman’s Project Talon portfolio, which also includes Talon IQ, an autonomous testbed based on the Scaled Composites Model 437 aircraft.
Talon IQ uses the company’s Prism Mission Autonomy software and provides a reference architecture for government customers to develop and test autonomous capabilities. The system is designed to accelerate the maturation of autonomy technologies while reducing the time and cost required to introduce new mission capabilities.
Northrop Grumman said the two programmes would enable the company and its partners to develop, test and deploy autonomous systems more rapidly, tailored to emerging threats and operational requirements.
The initiative reflects the defence industry’s broader push to develop autonomous aircraft that can be produced and deployed more quickly and affordably, while retaining the capabilities required for military missions.
Northrop Grumman is a global aerospace and defence technology company whose business spans military aircraft, autonomous systems, weapons, space systems and other defence technologies.
