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American defence prime Northrop Grumman has announced a new “Project Talon” autonomous wingman aircraft.
Project Talon, unveiled on 4 December this year, is reportedly designed to fly alongside crewed fighters to create air dominance as an adaptive, collaborative teammate for combat missions.
Project Talon was designed, built and on track to fly in under 24 months, according to the company.
“Project Talon combines greater mission versatility with the most advanced modular manufacturing techniques. This disruptive approach shortens timelines, emphasising speed and simplicity,” according to a company statement published on 4 December this year.
“Project Talon advances collaboration between crewed and uncrewed aircraft, acting as a force multiplier to enhance lethality, adaptability and mission effectiveness.
“Project Talon expands previous boundaries of collaborative aircraft technology to give US and international customers the ability to project power in dynamic threat environments.
“Northrop Grumman has more than 500,000 autonomous flight test hours across seven decades of experience in autonomy. Along with the release of Beacon earlier this year, Northrop Grumman continues to demonstrate it is advancing autonomy with speed and decisive action.
“Project Talon builds on Northrop Grumman’s seven decades of advanced, battle-tested autonomous systems across every domain.”
Project Talon has also reportedly been accelerated by Northrop Grumman autonomous testbed ecosystem, Beacon, which has tested avionics software in real-world environments.
