Defence manufacturer Northrop Grumman has unveiled a new optionally-unmanned aircraft intended to support the development of autonomous aviation technologies.
Northrop on 18 June revealed the new platform, called Beacon, which is based on the Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard low-cost jet, a crewed aircraft that logged its first flight in 2024.
Beacon uses a modified Model 437 configured for pilotless operations, with the intent of accelerating the integration, testing and validation of new mission and flight autonomy software.
President of Northrop’s aeronautics division Tom Jones describes its role as “sixth-generation autonomous software development”.
“The demand for new autonomous capability has grown exponentially,” Jones says. “Northrop Grumman has answered that call by investing to bring together industry partners who are innovating new solutions with those who have the production and operational experience at scale to deliver it.”
Notably, Beacon will be an open-access testbed, available to third-party customers and partners.
Rival uncrewed aircraft manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has taken a similar approach with its MQ-20 Avenger platform, which has now been flying for more than 15 years.
Northrop says it already has multiple partners signed up to use Beacon, with flight demonstrations planned for later in 2025.
