Project Talon: is Northrop Grumman the last major contractor to unveil a loyal wingman drone?
December 5, 2025
Northrop Grumman has unveiled its new Project Talon advanced combat drone somewhat belatedly. The aircraft represents a “cheaper and better” and “significantly different” offering compared with its failed Air Force CCA bid in 2024.
Northrop Grumman’s Project Talon drone
Northrop Grumman yesterday revealed its reworked loyal wingman drone called Project Talon, in reference to its T-36 Talon trainer. Unfortunately, the news release offered very little specific information about the aircraft or its capabilities.
Project Talon is here. This next-gen autonomous aircraft is made to adapt fast.
— Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) December 4, 2025
➡️ Modular by design
➡️ Mission-ready
➡️ Built for the challenges ahead pic.twitter.com/6UOhLSBHKn
The contractor presented Project Talon in generalised terms, stating that it is an “autonomous aircraft built to fly alongside crewed fighters” and that it “represents a paradigm shift in air dominance as an adaptive, collaborative teammate for combat missions.”
Much like every defence contractor unveiling their new autonomous combat aircraft, Northrop claims it is modular, disruptive, simple, and lethal.
Northrop Grumman was one of several defence contractors that bid for the US Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme, but it lost to Anduril and General Atomics. A year later, Northrop also lost its NGAD bid to Boeing.
Northrop said, “With Project Talon, we’ve listened, invested, and iterated on our designs to deliver greater value in affordable combat capabilities.”
The War Zone reported that compared to the previous aircraft Northrop offered for the CCA programme, Project Talon has around a 50% reduction in total parts, is 30% faster to produce, and is 1,000 pounds lighter.
Nothrop Grumman is late to the party
It seems every major aerospace defence contractor has unveiled their solutions for a loyal wingman drone. Anduril and General Atomics are currently developing their aircraft, the YFQ-44 and YFQ-42, respectively; both are now flying.
Boeing Australia is developing the MQ-28 Ghost Bat for the Royal Australian Air Force and is also developing the MQ-25 Singray carrier-based tanker drone for the US Navy.
In September, Lockheed Martin unveiled its Vectis autonomous aircraft concept. Vectis appears to be a high-end CCA. One of the reasons why Lockheed lost the competition was that the Air Force considered its solution “gold-plated” and wanted a more affordable, lower-capability aircraft.
It seems Lockheed still believes there will be a requirement for a higher-level combat drone. Like other contractors, Lockheed is eyeing the export market, especially Germany, which now has an urgent requirement for 400 advanced autonomous combat aircraft.
Meanwhile, Kratos is flying its XQ-58A Valkyrie as a testbed aircraft for the US Air Force, allowing it to develop loyal wingman requirements and doctrines.
Perhaps the most notable concept recently unveiled is Shield AI’s X-Bat. Instead of being a dedicated loyal wingman drone, X-Bat is also intended to be a high-end autonomous VTOL fighter jet in its own right.
Against 2025’s flurry of loyal wingman drone revelations, it feels like Northrop Grumman is a late to the party.
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Project Talon’s piloted counterpart
While little can be said about Project Talon’s capabilities, some things about its development stand out. Northrop says it was “designed, built, and on track to fly in under 24 months.”
The aircraft is built in partnership with Northrop’s subsidiary Scaled Composites. The Talon was developed from the testbed Beacon, which in turn utilised the Scaled Composites Model 437 demonstration aircraft as a test platform.
Model 437 was designed extensively with advanced digital tools and even had a cockpit for a pilot so that it could be optionally manned during testing. Project Talon has done away with the cockpit
It also appears that Shield AI is playing a major role in Project Talon, as the contractor is listed on Northrop’s Beacon webpage. Northrop says Shield AI is “developing AI-enabled mission autonomy and next-generation aircraft to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.”
Shield AI is also working with the Air Force’s X-62 VISTA program, General Atomics’ MQ-20 Avenger, and Kratos’s MQM-178 Firejet. Shield AI’s Hivemind was used to power the Avenger, although it’s unclear if it’s also integrated into Project Talon.
Featured Image: Northrop Grumman
