Northrop Grumman Expands Autonomous Portfolio

Release Time：14 Jan,2026

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20260118/1768710959779262.png" title="1768710959779262.png" alt="2.png"/></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Northrop Grumman unveiled Project Talon (pictured above), an autonomous aircraft built to fly alongside crewed fighters. As the latest addition to the company’s elite autonomous portfolio, Project Talon represents a paradigm shift in air dominance as an adaptive, collaborative teammate for combat missions.&nbsp; Project Talon combines greater mission versatility with the most advanced modular manufacturing techniques. This disruptive approach shortens timelines, emphasizing speed and simplicity. 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 U.S. and international customers the ability to project power in dynamic threat environments.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">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.&nbsp; Project Talon was designed, built and on track to fly in under 24 months. The Northrop Grumman autonomous testbed ecosystem, Beacon, accelerated Project Talon, testing its avionics software in real-world environments. Project Talon builds on Northrop Grumman’s seven decades of advanced, battle-tested autonomous systems across every domain. It represents a paradigm shift in air dominance and showcases the company’s ability to quickly deliver mission-ready autonomy with streamlined manufacturing capabilities and innovative production processes. Its modular design exemplifies how efficient and adaptable manufacturing can meet the rapidly changing requirements of modern military operations, broadening appeal and effectiveness with domestic and international markets. Additionally, Northrop Grumman successfully tested the first of two new solid rocket motors — SMASH!22 and BAMM!29 2.0 — designed and manufactured in 2025 under the SMART Demo program. This milestone marks a key achievement in the project’s most ambitious year by delivering both motors in under 12 months. The static test fire of SMASH!22, the 22-inch diameter Solid Motor Adaptable, Scalable, Half Time/Cost solid rocket motor configuration, evaluated several innovative incorporations such as advanced manufacturing and new materials that could speed development and production, boost performance and lower costs. The test generated a comprehensive suite of data that will further the team’s understanding of the technologies demonstrated. The second motor, the 29-inch diameter Bombardment Attack Missile Motor called BAMM!29 2.0, is slated for static testing in early 2026, continuing the momentum of the SMART Demo initiative. The SMART Demo program is designed to tailor solid rocket motor designs to meet specific industry needs. Northrop Grumman developed both the SMASH and BAMM motors leveraging knowledge from previous projects while integrating advanced tooling, additively manufactured components, and a diversified supplier base.&nbsp; Recently, the Integrated Battle Command System, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation for the U.S. Army, completed a pivotal flight test at White Sands Missile Range. This test was part of Follow-on Operational Test &amp; Evaluation (FOT&amp;E) to assess IBCS operational effectiveness in a tactical environment. During the test, Army Air Defenders used IBCS in a complex environment that mimicked real-world operations, identifying and engaging targets via multiple interceptors. The flight test intercept of two surrogate cruise missile targets demonstrated IBCS’s capability to defeat realistic threats in operational environments and highlighted its ability to enhance joint missions, as it integrated with U.S. Navy participants.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Under FOT&amp;E, IBCS is being assessed for its ability to defeat new threats and meet operational needs. The results of the FOT&amp;E and this operational flight test will inform future IBCS development and fielding to the Army. IBCS&#39;s modular open systems design enables IBCS to evolve and adapt to changing requirements and threats. Northrop Grumman is manufacturing IBCS under a full-rate production contract in a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing center in Madison, Alabama. The new facility has the capability to double the company’s manufacturing capacity in Huntsville and scale IBCS to meet growing demand for integrated fires, command and control in the U.S. and globally. Jeremy Knupp, vice president, global command and control solutions, Northrop Grumman: “IBCS continues to showcase exceptional performance as seen during this soldier-run FOT&amp;E flight test. By defeating complex threats, IBCS proved its flexibility to integrate new technologies and unify systems regardless of source, service or domain.” IBCS is a revolutionary system fire control quality and battle management, unifying current and future systems regardless of source, service or domain. IBCS fuses sensor data for a single, actionable picture of the full battlespace. Through its network enabled, modular, open and scalable architecture, IBCS can evolve and adapt to meet the changing battlespace. This proven capability gives warfighters more time to assess and respond to threats, serving as a foundational element for enabling joint and coalition, multi-domain operations IBCS is in production and will be fielded as part of the U.S. Army’s program of record for integrated air and missile defense modernization. Northrop Grumman was awarded a five-year contract valued at more than $1 billion from the U.S. Army for low-rate initial production and full-rate production of IBCS in December 2021.</span></p>