MOJAVE, Calif., — Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A Talon Blue has completed its first fully autonomous flight at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. During the October 3 test, the uncrewed aircraft independently performed taxiing, takeoff, in-flight maneuvers and landing without pilot input.
Flight-tracking data indicated that the aircraft reached an altitude of approximately 9,875 feet to just over 10,000 feet and speeds ranging from around 190 to 233 knots before returning to land.
Aircraft Design and Capabilities
Built by Northrop Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites, the aircraft is also known as the Model 444 and is registered as N444LX. It is a single-engine uncrewed combat aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighter jets.
Talon Blue features a high dorsal air intake, swept lambda-style wings, a wide wheelbase, a long slender fuselage, canted twin tails and an internal weapons bay. It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PW500-family turbofan adapted from commercial use for military applications. Some reports identify the engine as the PW545 variant.
Northrop Grumman used modular manufacturing and design changes to reduce production costs, manufacturing time, weight and part count. Some programme descriptions cite a part-count reduction of approximately 50 percent and a weight reduction of roughly 1,000 pounds. These changes are intended to support affordable production at scale without sacrificing mission capability.
Project Talon and Collaborative Combat Aircraft
Talon Blue is the centrepiece of Northrop Grumman’s internally funded Project Talon, which focuses on developing autonomous airpower capabilities. The aircraft was developed using company funding after Northrop Grumman was not selected for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Increment 1 competition.
The Increment 1 contracts went to General Atomics for the YFQ-42A and Anduril for the YFQ-44A. Talon Blue could position Northrop Grumman to compete for future CCA requirements, including potential subsequent increments, although no future selection is guaranteed.
The aircraft is intended to serve as an autonomous wingman supporting crewed fighters. The U.S. Air Force assigned it the YFQ-48A designation in December 2025, following its unveiling in late 2025. Autonomous taxi tests were completed in May 2026.
“Our customers made it clear they need autonomous systems that can be fielded faster and more affordably without sacrificing mission effectiveness,” said Craig Woolston, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and general manager for research and advanced design.
“Talon Blue’s first flight is one step toward a new generation of autonomous capabilities,” Woolston added, noting that each flight provides lessons for the company’s broader autonomy development work.
Northrop Grumman said the programme draws on more than 500,000 autonomous flight hours accumulated across previous platforms, including the RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-4C Triton, as well as the company’s wider experience in autonomous aviation.
Talon IQ and Autonomy Software
Project Talon also includes Talon IQ, an autonomous software testbed operating on the crewed Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard aircraft. It uses Northrop Grumman’s Prism Mission Autonomy software, which provides a government reference architecture intended to accelerate autonomous software development.
Testing autonomy software on a crewed aircraft allows the company to develop and evaluate mission capabilities before integrating them into uncrewed platforms. The system also supports testing software integration and, in some demonstrations, mid-flight software changes involving partner systems.
Together, Talon IQ and Talon Blue support software development, flight testing and the integration of autonomous capabilities into aircraft designed to address changing operational requirements and emerging threats. The October 3 flight marks the start of Talon Blue’s flight-test phase.
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