American unmanned combat aerial vehicle developed by Northrop Grumman for Increment II of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program as an autonomous fighter escort.
| Powerplant | 1 × Pratt & Whitney PW500-series |
The Northrop Grumman YFQ-48 Talon Blue is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) under development for Increment II of the United States Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. It is intended to augment crewed fighters such as the F-15EX Eagle II, F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II and the planned F-47 in air-to-air missions through manned-unmanned teaming, operating as an autonomous "fighter drone" wingman.
The design draws on lessons from Northrop Grumman's unsuccessful bid for CCA Increment I, which was judged larger and more expensive than the winning General Atomics YFQ-42 and Anduril YFQ-44. With subsidiary Scaled Composites, the company developed a smaller, simpler and cheaper follow-on with 50 percent fewer parts and roughly 454 kg less weight. The airframe features a long, slender fuselage, swept lambda wings, V-tails, a dorsal air intake, and widely spaced main landing gear that retracts into the wings. Power comes from a single Pratt & Whitney PW500-series turbofan; no performance figures have been published.
Developed under the codename "Project Lotus", later "Project Talon", the aircraft was unveiled in December 2025 and received the YFQ-48A designation from the USAF that month. The prototype completed its first engine run in early 2026 and autonomous taxi tests in May 2026, demonstrating independent steering, braking and propulsion control. Northrop Grumman announced in October 2026 that the aircraft had completed its first flight, a fully autonomous sortie from Mojave in which it taxied, took off, maneuvered and landed without pilot input.
Northrop Grumman said on October 3, 2026 that its company-funded YFQ-48A Talon Blue had taxied, taken off, maneuvered and landed without pilot input at Mojave, California, as the US Air Force prepares to select designs for Increment 2 of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
