Northrop Grumman Kicks Off Beacon Program With Six Initial Partners

Northrop Grumman has selected six partners to use its Beacon testbed, designed to accelerate the development and deployment of scalable autonomous systems.

Partners that have been selected include Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, and Merlin.

Red 6, Shield AI, and SoarTech are also part of the group.

Beacon is an open-access testbed that integrates autonomous software with a digital platform, enabling partners to develop and evaluate AI-driven capabilities using Northrop Grumman’s flight systems and hardware.

The platform is designed to cut development time and costs, supporting future aircraft programs through live demonstrations and collaborative integration.

The firms will use Beacon to test and refine autonomous systems using the Scaled Composites Model 437 aircraft and Northrop’s flight autonomy hardware in a series of flight demos scheduled for this year.

“By providing open access to the Beacon ecosystem, we’re enhancing the innovation, new competition and ultimately the autonomous capabilities that industry can deliver to our customers – with unmatched speed and at scale,” said Tom Jones, corporate VP and president, Aeronautics Systems, Northrop Grumman.

Latest Projects

In recent months, Northrop Grumman has broadened its network of strategic partnerships.

In June, it partnered with NVIDIA to develop fully autonomous spacecraft utilizing advanced AI technologies.

It also signed a memorandum of understanding with Hanwha Systems to co-develop next-generation integrated air and missile defense systems.

Additionally, Northrop Grumman is working with Marshall on a proposal for the UK’s future Ground-Based Air Defense program.