Northrop Grumman will begin flight tests of its Beacon project this fall, using a modified Scaled Composites Model 437 “Vanguard” jet to evaluate how artificial intelligence (AI) performs in flight.
The effort is part of a growing Pentagon effort to trial AI in real aircraft before moving the technology into future combat fleets.
The Vanguard will run Northrop’s new Prism software, which handles core flight and safety functions while allowing outside developers to plug in their own systems.
A safety pilot will be aboard each mission, able to take control if needed. Early missions will focus on validating Prism before shifting to partner software, with trials continuing through 2026.
Six tech companies — Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, Merlin Labs, Red 6, Shield AI, and SoarTech — will join the first phase. Their systems will be tested for tasks such as navigation, working alongside other aircraft, and mission planning.
Expanding AI Into Military Aviation
Northrop introduced Beacon in June as an “open-architecture ecosystem” that allows developers to connect their software without building their own aircraft. Company officials say the setup lowers barriers for AI firms while Northrop ensures the jet can fly safely.
“The market is very hungry for autonomous testbeds,” said Dan Salluce, Northrop Grumman’s director of advanced autonomy, in remarks reported by Breaking Defense. “A lot of companies are innovators in the AI and autonomy space, but they’re not yet hardware vendors.”
The initiative also aligns with Pentagon efforts to integrate AI into future fleets, including the US Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program to pair piloted fighters with autonomous drones and the US Navy’s parallel early-stage projects.
Beacon’s Vanguard is expected to complement other Air Force platforms, including the X-62A Variable In-Flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Ops Models (VENOM) F-16s at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Unlike those combat aircraft, Beacon is intended to fly more often at a lower cost, with Northrop providing its own telemetry and support systems.
“What Beacon allows us to do is take AI and autonomy and integrate it on our platform…and turn that loose to the latest companies and innovators to show us what they can do,” Aviation Week quoted Salluce as saying in a separate report.
The Vanguard
Developed by Northrop’s California-based subsidiary Scaled Composites, the Vanguard is a single-seat aircraft measuring 41 feet (12 meters) in both length and wingspan, with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms).
It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PW535 turbofan engine with 5,100 horsepower for a planned top speed of Mach 0.85 (652 miles/1,050 kilometers per hour), a range of 2,600 nautical miles (2,992 miles/4,815 kilometers), and an operational altitude of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters).
