Jane Edwards 
- Northrop has achieved a flight milestone for Talon Blue
- Design changes reduced the number of parts and the aircraft’s weight
- Talon IQ testbed complements the Project Talon portfolio
Northrop Grumman‘s YFQ-48A Talon Blue uncrewed aircraft conducted its first fully autonomous flight in Mojave, California.
The company said Saturday the aircraft handled taxiing, takeoff, airborne maneuvers and landing on its own during the flight.
Craig Woolston, vice president and general manager of research and advanced design at Northrop, said customers are seeking autonomous systems that can be fielded more quickly and at lower cost while maintaining mission effectiveness.
“Talon Blue’s first flight is one step toward a new generation of autonomous capabilities. Every flight and lesson strengthens our broader autonomy work and sharpens what comes next,” Woolston said.
What Is Talon Blue?
YFQ-48A Talon Blue is a company-funded uncrewed aircraft developed under Northrop’s Project Talon portfolio, an internal effort to shorten the timeline for bringing autonomous airpower to operational use.
In December 2025, the Air Force designated the Project Talon prototype as YFQ-48A as part of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, program. The service is seeking $1 billion to acquire CCAs in fiscal year 2027.
The aircraft relies on a modular architecture and advanced production methods. According to Northrop, changes to the design and manufacturing process reduced the number of components in the aircraft and its total weight.
Talon Blue’s configuration includes a wide wheelbase, a high air intake and an internal weapons bay. The company said these features allow the aircraft to support a range of missions for the U.S. and allied militaries.
What Other Systems Are in the Project Talon Portfolio?
The Project Talon portfolio also includes Talon IQ, an autonomy testbed built on the Scaled Composites Model 437 aircraft. Talon IQ runs Northrop’s Prism Mission Autonomy software and serves as a government reference architecture designed to reduce the time and cost involved in maturing autonomy and introducing new mission capabilities.
Northrop said Talon Blue and Talon IQ together give the company and its partners a way to build, evaluate and deploy autonomous capabilities customized for evolving threats and mission requirements.
Company leadership has also addressed the pace of the Project Talon effort. In December 2025, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden, a 2026 Wash100 awardee, told CNBC in an interview that Project Talon draws on the company’s experience in autonomous operations and aims to put capability in the field within 24 months.
Beyond Project Talon, Northrop is applying its autonomy capabilities to Marine Corps requirements. In January, the company secured a $231.5 million other transaction agreement from the Marine Corps to rapidly develop a CCA under the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft program. Under the effort, Northrop will integrate its Prism open architecture software with Kratos’ Valkyrie uncrewed aircraft system to enable autonomous operations.
