Falls Church, Virginia – 30 July 2025 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has revealed the first six strategic partners for its Beacon™ autonomous testbed ecosystem, designed to accelerate the testing and delivery of autonomous solutions at scale. Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, Merlin, Red 6, Shield AI, and SoarTech (an Accelint company) will collaborate to develop, refine, and demonstrate advanced autonomy capabilities using Beacon throughout the year.
The partners will test their technologies using the Scaled Composites‑built Model 437 aircraft, coupled with Northrop Grumman’s proven flight autonomy hardware and integration expertise. A series of flight demonstrations is planned, providing a real‑world platform for innovation.
“Beacon is about collaboration across industry between companies of all sizes and expertise,” said Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president of Aeronautics Systems at Northrop Grumman. “By providing open access to the Beacon ecosystem, we’re enhancing innovation, creating new competition, and ultimately delivering autonomous capabilities to our customers with unmatched speed and scale.”
Built on more than 500,000 autonomous flight hours and decades of experience, Beacon is an open‑access testbed aligned to government reference architectures. It integrates Northrop Grumman’s advanced autonomous software into a cutting‑edge digital ecosystem, supporting future aircraft programs by accelerating software deployment, reducing risk, and improving operational readiness.
Northrop Grumman continues to position itself as a leader in aerospace and defence innovation, providing solutions that connect and protect the world while advancing the boundaries of human exploration.
SOURCE AND IMAGE: NORTHROP GRUMMAN. CAPTION:
Beacon brings software from companies of all sizes together with its proven flight software and hardware to test real-world mission scenarios. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
