:

Air Force

Northrop Grumman Eyes First Flight Of Project Talon Next Year

Frank Wolfe

Friday, December 5th, 2025

SHARE:

Northrop Grumman Eyes First Flight Of Project Talon Next Year

Pictured is a Northrop Grumman photo of Project Talon.

Northrop Grumman [NOC] used its Beacon autonomous testbed, announced in June, to accelerate development of the Project Talon autonomous drone offering for the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Modified for optionally autonomous flight, Beacon is a Model 437 Vanguard aircraft by Northrop Grumman-owned Scaled Composites, founded by aircraft designer and entrepreneur Burt Rutan in Mojave, Calif., in 1982. "Built to fly alongside crewed fighters," Project Talon "represents a paradigm shift in air dominance as an adaptive, collaborative…

Budget

Hegseth Pushes For Reconciliation With At Least $350 Billion For Defense ‘Regardless’ Of Midterms Outcome

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the Trump administration plans to continue its push for at least $350 billion in defense funds via the reconciliation process “regardless of what happens […]

Congress

Bipartisan Push in Senate to Hasten Export of 155 mm, GMLRS, HIMARS for Ukraine

A small, bipartisan group of senators is backing the Fast Tracking European Investment in Ukraine’s Defense Act, S. 5175, to hasten the export of allied buys of U.S. munitions for […]

Congress

Rep. Himes Signals Increased Contractor Oversight, if Democrats Win House

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, plans to increase the committee’s contractor oversight if the Democrats win control of the House […]

Congress

CBO Estimates Loss of One-Half to Two-Thirds of U.S. Missile Interceptors Since June Last Year

A new Congressional Budget Office report estimates the cost of the Iran war through Aug. 1 as $38 billion and says that the U.S. has likely depleted between one-half and […]