Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A Talon Blue Collaborative Combat Aircraft has completed its first fully autonomous flight, marking a major step for the company’s work on aircraft designed to operate without direct human control.

The flight took place in Mojave, California, according to a recent company release. Talon Blue autonomously completed taxi operations, takeoff, maneuvers in flight and landing during the milestone event.

The autonomous flight demonstrated the aircraft across multiple phases of operation rather than focusing on a single task. Northrop Grumman announced the achievement as part of its continuing effort to advance autonomous capabilities.

Talon Blue features a modular design and belongs to the defense company’s internally funded Project Talon portfolio. The project focuses on manufacturing improvements intended to reduce costs and accelerate production without reducing mission capability.

According to the company statement, upgrades to the aircraft’s design and manufacturing process decreased its overall weight and reduced the number of parts. Those changes lowered costs and increased the production timeline to meet demand for autonomous systems.

Northrop Grumman presented that manufacturing approach as a response to customer requirements for systems that can arrive more quickly and at a more affordable cost while retaining their effectiveness during missions.

“Our customers made it clear they need autonomous systems that can be fielded faster and more affordably without sacrificing mission effectiveness. We listened,” Craig Woolston, vice president and general manager of research and advanced design at Northrop Grumman, said in the release.

Woolston described the flight as progress toward broader autonomous capabilities, while also emphasizing the importance of the information gathered through testing.

“Talon Blue’s first flight is one step toward a new generation of autonomous capabilities,” Woolston continued. “Every flight and lesson strengthens our broader autonomy work and sharpens what comes next.”

The announcement arrived only weeks after U.S. Air Force officials disclosed their intention to have 500 autonomous aircraft in service by 2032. That objective places a substantial number behind the service’s push for autonomous aviation.

Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink also released the names assigned to two aircraft from other companies. Anduril’s FQ-44A will be known as “Fury,” while General Atomics’s FQ-42A will carry the name “Vengeance.”

Production contracts for Anduril and General Atomics were awarded in June. Anduril then completed its first live fire test one month later, while General Atomics intends to conduct its live fire testing this fall.

Northrop Grumman has not received an Air Force contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The company is, however, included in the service’s baseline contract pool for the production of mission autonomy software.

The Air Force selected six vendors in June for a competition centered on the software’s performance for Increment 1. The service aims to choose one of those vendors by summer 2027.

Talon Blue’s autonomous flight therefore represents progress for Northrop Grumman’s own aircraft effort while the company remains outside the current Air Force aircraft production awards. Its position in the software contract pool keeps it involved in the service’s mission autonomy competition.

The completed flight also brought together the central features Northrop Grumman highlighted for the program, including autonomous operation, modular design, reduced part count, lower weight and manufacturing changes intended to address production demands.

For Northrop Grumman, the Mojave flight supplied a concrete demonstration of Project Talon’s work. Talon Blue moved through taxi, takeoff, flight maneuvers and landing autonomously, completing the full sequence identified in the company’s announcement.

The milestone comes as the Air Force pursues hundreds of autonomous aircraft and evaluates competing mission autonomy software. Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A has now logged its first fully autonomous flight as that wider competition continues.