The Northrop Grumman YFQ-48A Talon Blue is an uncrewed, autonomous collaborative combat aircraft prototype, built by Scaled Composites as a company-funded rival to the Air Force's YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A. It made its first flight, entirely under autonomous control, at Mojave on 3 October 2026. Developed by Northrop Grumman / Scaled Composites.
The Northrop Grumman YFQ-48A Talon Blue is an uncrewed, autonomous collaborative combat aircraft prototype, built by Scaled Composites as a company-funded rival to the Air Force's YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A. Developed by Northrop Grumman / Scaled Composites.
See Specifications for full detail.
The Northrop Grumman YFQ-48A Talon Blue is an American uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) prototype, designed by Northrop Grumman and built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites at Mojave, California. It is meant to fly as an autonomous wingman alongside crewed fighters such as the F-35A and F-47, and Northrop has paid for its development itself. [1] [2] [3]
Northrop unveiled the aircraft as Project Talon on 3 December 2025, the U.S. Air Force designated it YFQ-48A on 22 December, and the name Talon Blue followed in February 2026. It made its first flight, autonomous from taxi to landing, at the Mojave Air & Space Port on 3 October 2026. The designation came without a production contract, and Northrop has released no dimensions, performance figures or price. [4] [1] [5] [3]
The Air Force's CCA programme buys uncrewed jets to fly in teams with crewed fighters, carrying out strike, reconnaissance, jamming and decoy missions. In April 2024 it chose General Atomics and Anduril to build Increment 1 aircraft, which became the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, and Northrop's own Increment 1 design lost. Northrop then reworked that design with company funds. Aviation Week first reported the effort as Project Lotus in October 2025, and Northrop renamed it Project Talon when it showed the aircraft to a small group of reporters at Scaled Composites on 3 December 2025. [2] [4] [6]
At the unveiling Northrop said Talon had not been designed specifically for Increment 2, the programme's next phase, and declined to say whether the reworked design would have won Increment 1. The Air Force designated the aircraft YFQ-48A on 22 December 2025, the third CCA to receive a designation after the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A. Brig. Gen. Jason Voorheis linked the decision to keeping competition in the programme. [4] [7] [1] [2]
The name Talon refers back to the Northrop T-38 Talon trainer. Northrop has not explained the Blue: The War Zone suggested it points to Tacit Blue, the company's stealth technology demonstrator, and Northrop's Tom Jones said only that the name had a cool sound to it. Northrop announced the name on 23 February 2026 and at the same time renamed its Beacon autonomy testbed Talon IQ, although Aviation Week has reported that the aircraft was rebranded Talon Blue as early as November 2025. [8] [5] [9]
In the YFQ-48A designation, Y marks a prototype, F a fighter and Q an uncrewed aircraft. The number 48 is out of sequence in the Q-series, which had not reached it when the designation was issued. Designation-Systems.net, which tracks US military designations, recorded in February 2026 that no details of the aircraft's characteristics had been released. [1] [10]
Talon Blue has a lambda wing, canted twin tails, a trapezoidal intake on top of the fuselage and a chined nose, all shaped for low radar observability. The wide-track main landing gear retracts inward and comes from an existing aircraft that Northrop has not named. Northrop describes an integrated internal weapons bay. Northrop and Scaled Composites split the design and build work roughly evenly. [7] [11] [3]
Against Northrop's Increment 1 design, the all-composite airframe is about 1,000 lb lighter, has 50 percent fewer parts and is 30 percent quicker to build. The aircraft went from concept to standing on its own wheels in about 15 months, and from design to flight-ready in less than two years. It has a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW500-series turbofan, from a family of business-jet engines with more than 24.5 million flight hours; Aviation Week identifies it as the PW545. Pratt & Whitney paid for its own testing to widen the engine's operating limits for CCA use. Neither company has published thrust, weight, range or speed. [4] [2] [12] [9]
Talon Blue is the combat-aircraft half of Project Talon, Northrop's company-funded autonomy portfolio. The other half is Talon IQ, a testbed formerly called Beacon, built on the Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard and running Northrop's Prism autonomy software. Northrop offers Talon IQ to the government as a reference architecture for testing autonomy software from different suppliers. [3] [8]
The Model 437, developed from Scaled's earlier Model 401, first flew at Mojave on 29 August 2024, 21 months after design work started. It spans 41 ft, has a 3,400 lbf PW535 engine and a gross weight of 10,000 lb, and Scaled proposed building production versions for $5-6 million each. On 2 April 2026 Talon IQ flew combat air patrol and target-engagement manoeuvres under Shield AI's Hivemind software, then handed control to Prism during the same flight. [13] [14]
Pratt & Whitney announced on 17 April 2026 that the engine had been integrated into the aircraft. Ground testing at Mojave ran for at least a month, and on 18 May The Aviationist reported that autonomous taxi tests were complete. At the unveiling Northrop had planned to fly about nine months later; the first flight came about ten months later. [12] [15] [4]
The first flight took place at the Mojave Air & Space Port on 3 October 2026. The aircraft taxied, took off, manoeuvred and landed under its own control. Registered N444LX, which The War Zone reports corresponds to Scaled's Model 444, it flew a racetrack pattern and reached 233 knots and just over 10,000 ft. [3] [16] [9]
The YFQ-48A is a company-funded prototype with no production contract or confirmed customer. Northrop reported interest from U.S. services and foreign buyers when it unveiled the aircraft. The Navy gave Northrop one of four CCA conceptual design contracts on 5 September 2025, alongside General Atomics, Boeing and Anduril, with Lockheed Martin contracted for the common control system, but Northrop has not linked Talon Blue to that work and no naval version has been announced. [7] [17]
Increment 1 aircraft were expected to cost around $30 million each, and in December 2025 Air Force Secretary Troy Meink suggested aiming for substantially less, perhaps half. The Air Force gave Increment 2 concept-refinement contracts to nine unnamed companies that month, so whether Northrop is among them is not public. In June 2026 the service said more than 20 companies were eligible for the Increment 2 design phase, with reported cost targets of $25-30 million for higher-end aircraft and $5-10 million for attritable ones. Its fiscal 2027 budget request included $1.1 billion for CCA production and about $1.4 billion for research and development. [4] [18]
The YFQ-48A has no ICAO type code. The one known aircraft is civil-registered as N444LX and flies from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, so searching that registration is the only way to look for it. Northrop has not said whether it broadcasts ADS-B during test flights.
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | ?? |
|---|---|
| Cruise SpeedCruise Speed — The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn. Glossary → | ?? |
| RangeRange — How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius. Glossary → | ?? |
| Service CeilingService Ceiling — The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully. Glossary → | ?? |
| Airframe & Weight | |
| Wingspan | ?? |
| Length | ?? |
| Height | ?? |
| WeightMTOW — Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself. Glossary → | ?? |
| Power & Payload | |
| Engines | 1 x Pratt & Whitney Canada PW500-series turbofan (reported as the PW545); thrust not published |
| ArmamentArmament — The weapons an aircraft can carry: guns, missiles, bombs and rockets, whether mounted internally, on wing hardpoints, or in bomb bays. Glossary → | Integrated internal weapons bay; no weapons have been announced |
| Crew | None onboard - autonomous |
| CapacityPayload — Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other. Glossary → | Internal weapons bay; payload not published |
| Program & Service | |
| Manufacturer | Northrop Grumman / Scaled Composites |
| Origin | United States |
| First Flight | October 3rd 2026 |
| Service Entry | Not yet in service |
| Number Built | 1 |
| Unit Cost | Not publicly disclosed - Northrop Grumman has funded the aircraft itself and has not published a price |
7 notable events involving the YFQ-48A Talon Blue, 2025 to 2026. Curated rather than exhaustive.
Northrop Grumman showed the aircraft to a small group of reporters at Scaled Composites in Mojave and said it planned to fly it about nine months later.
The Air Force gave the aircraft the designation YFQ-48A, the third collaborative combat aircraft to be designated, without a production contract.
Northrop announced the name Talon Blue for the YFQ-48A and renamed its Beacon autonomy testbed Talon IQ.
The Model 437-based testbed flew combat air patrol and target-engagement manoeuvres under Shield AI's Hivemind, then switched to Northrop's Prism software mid-flight.
Pratt & Whitney announced that its PW500-family turbofan had been integrated into the YFQ-48A.
The aircraft completed autonomous taxi tests after at least a month of ground testing.
N444LX made a fully autonomous first flight from the Mojave Air & Space Port, flying a racetrack pattern and reaching 233 knots and just over 10,000 ft.
| YFQ-48A Talon Blue | The combat-aircraft prototype of Project Talon, reworked from Northrop's losing CCA Increment 1 design and built by Scaled Composites at Mojave. It has a lambda wing, canted twin tails, a dorsal intake and an internal weapons bay, and is powered by a single PW500-series turbofan. The one known aircraft, registered N444LX, first flew autonomously on 3 October 2026. |
| Talon IQ (Model 437) | The autonomy testbed half of Project Talon, formerly called Beacon. It is a Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard, a 41 ft-span jet with a 3,400 lbf PW535 engine that first flew on 29 August 2024, running Northrop's Prism autonomy software. On 2 April 2026 it flew combat air patrol manoeuvres using Shield AI's Hivemind and switched to Prism mid-flight. |
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