Hermeus recruits Northrop Grumman to Quarterhorse drone program

WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman is partnering with Hermeus to supply mission systems for the startup’s aircraft, adding another industry player to the team as Hermeus pushes to field a high-speed drone.

In a press release published Thursday, Hermeus said Northrop will provide “integrated mission systems design, development, integration, and sustainment” for Hermeus’ aircraft. The partnership “creates a path to equip Hermeus’ aircraft with technology across sensing, communications, navigation, and command and control, allowing the aircraft to operate more intelligently and take on more complex missions,” the release adds.

“We’re building a new class of aircraft that gives the warfighter improved speed, range, and flexibility while integrating into the existing Force,” Hermeus CEO Zach Shore said in the company’s release. “Adding Northrop Grumman’s battle-tested mission systems will push what those aircraft can do in real world scenarios and help us field operational capability faster.”

Founded in 2018, Hermeus is currently developing its Quarterhorse drone with funding from the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. Military officials have expressed strong interest in the platform, which the company is pushing to fly at speeds as fast as Mach 3 through an iterative design process. The drone achieved supersonic flight earlier this year.

Northrop is a key supplier of mission systems across the defense industrial base, including radars, electronic warfare kits and navigation equipment for US military platforms.

In a separate release, Northrop said it will integrate its mission systems onto the Quarterhorse. Northrop Program Manager Kyle Mimken told Breaking Defense in a statement that “at a high level,” the company will bring “electronic warfare, communications, sensing and navigation along with the payload-integration and systems-engineering experience needed to make those capabilities work together on an aircraft.”

Mimken declined to comment on which specific systems the company plans to integrate, but stressed that Northrop’s contributions will help make the aircraft more survivable and effective. He added that the partnership’s “immediate focus” is mission systems integration and coordinating with Hermeus to prepare for flight testing.

“We expect to begin trials of elements of our mission-system kit in our testing environments in the summer,” Mimken said.

Northrop’s addition marks another industry heavyweight on the Quarterhorse team. In September, Hermeus revealed that it will use autonomy software supplied by defense tech firm Anduril for upcoming flight tests.

The Quarterhorse is powered by Pratt & Whitney’s F100 fighter jet engine. Shortly after announcing the Anduril partnership, Hermeus executives told Breaking Defense that the company had reached an agreement with Pratt to manufacture the F100 under license — the first such deal for an American firm. Hermeus officials believe the arrangement positions the company to be virtually the only vertically integrated planemaker in the business.

Hermeus is also building its own turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine based on the F100. A TBCC engine combines a jet turbine with a ramjet engine to create an integrated propulsion system capable of pushing an aircraft to hypersonic speeds exceeding Mach 5. Hermeus’ TBCC concept, dubbed Chimera, would serve as the propulsion system for the company’s envisioned hypersonic aircraft, the Darkhorse.