**Mojave, California** — Northrop Grumman is advancing its new prototype, **Project Talon**, following the company’s previous unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program. The aim is to fly the new prototype within the next **nine months**. Project Talon, which was previously known as **Project Lotus**, improves upon Northrop’s initial proposal for the first increment of the CCA program.
**Tom Jones**, the corporate vice president and president for Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, explained that while the first increment of the CCA program was focused on air-to-air missions, Talon is designed for a broader range of missions. He stated, “What we learned is we took a high side compliant engineering organization and taught them a different way of thinking about innovation.” He emphasized that innovation isn’t solely about creating the highest-performing subsystems but involves a holistic approach to engineering and manufacturing.
The prototype was constructed over **15 months** in collaboration with Northrop’s subsidiary, **Scaled Composites**. Key objectives included reducing manufacturing costs and accelerating production timelines. Northrop successfully decreased Talon’s build time by nearly **one-third** and halved the number of parts compared to previous aircraft designs. Although Jones did not disclose specific costs, he highlighted that optimizing materials and reducing the aircraft’s weight by **about 1,000 pounds** were essential to achieving affordability and improved performance.
Jones elaborated, “If you set the requirements and say the most important requirements are affordability and schedule… Your engineers are now focused on optimizing a different problem,” indicating that these changes lead to benefits such as better performance, longer range, and improved operational capabilities.
The introduction of Talon follows Lockheed Martin’s **Skunk Works**, which recently announced its multipurpose CCA competitor drone, **Vectis**, with plans for a test flight in **2027**. Earlier this year, the **Navy** awarded contracts for CCA drone development to several defense contractors, including Northrop Grumman, Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, and Lockheed Martin.
In 2023, CCA development has marked significant milestones, including the first test flights of **General Atomics** and **Anduril**’s robot wingmen. Moreover, **Shield AI** has also introduced a contender for the CCA program. As European countries are increasing their defense budgets, international interest in the CCA initiative is on the rise.
The U.S. Air Force is projected to allocate nearly **$1 billion** towards CCA development in the upcoming years, contingent on securing the requested **$111 million** for fiscal year **2026**, alongside **$678 million** in budget reconciliation funds distributed over five years.
