Northrop Grumman has announced first six industry partners who will utilize its Beacon™ testbeds. The inaugural Beacon participants are: Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, Merlin, Red 6, Shield AI, and SoarTech. These companies will integrate and test their autonomous solutions using Model 437 aircraft. Northrop Grumman integrated its hardware on these Scale Composite-built aircrafts. Grumman’s autonomy systems hardware is flight-proven.
“Beacon is about collaboration across industry between companies of all sizes and expertise,” said Tom Jones. Jones is the Corporate Vice President and President of Aeronautics Systems, Northrop Grumman. “By providing open access to the Beacon ecosystem, we’re enhancing innovation and new competition. Ultimately, enhacing the autonomous capabilities that industry can deliver to our customers. Work is being done to deliver with unmatched speed and at scale.”
The flight testing campaign is expected to begin later this year. The program leverages Northrop Grumman’s decades of experience in autonomy. Grumman Corporation has a record of over 500,000 autonomous flight hours. The flight testing program builds on a foundation of digital engineering and open architecture. It will be enabling seamless integration with government reference models.
Beacon is designed as a modular, open-access testbed that facilitates faster prototyping. Alongside prototypes, integration and fielding of autonomous technologies are also supported. The Department of Defense (DoD)’s priorities have evolved around open mission systems. Beacon is a platform that aligns with these and other software-centric approaches.to autonomy. This flexible framework allows third-party developers to test their autonomy stacks. It provides real-world environments with rapid iteration cycles.
The Model 437 test aircraft serves as the core flight platform for Beacon demonstrations. offering a reliable and scalable foundation for high-speed, high-fidelity autonomy testing. Northrop Grumman’s infrastructure will further support the partners’ development cycles. This includes autonomy-enabling hardware, software frameworks, and mission systems integration.
Beacon is bringing together startups and established autonomy leaders. The Beacon ecosystem aims to streamline development timelines. Furthermore, beacon will reduce system risk and improve overall mission readiness. The goal is to enable future autonomous aircraft programs to field more robust capabilities. in reduced timeframes.
This collaborative model fosters innovation across the defense industrial base. It also enhances competition and diversity in the development of autonomous systems. This is a critical priority for the U.S. defense community in light of emerging global threats.
Javeria Sajid is an Aerospace Engineering student from NUST with a background in technology and a sharp focus on the global political landscape and defence innovation. She writes to make complex defence technologies understandable, and aspires to bridge journalism, policy, and engineering in her work.
