Project Talon Portfolio puts mission autonomy at the center of future CCA operations
Truly autonomous aircraft can make decisions without continuous human input.
“While the aircraft was flying, the software was queued up so that we could have different companies’ behaviors take control of the platform and fly [it]," said Dan Salluce, Northrop’s senior director for aerospace systems.
From AI adoption and agentic systems to Zero Trust and cyber resilience, Breaking Defense’s latest eBook brings together key reporting from DoDIIS 2026 on the technologies and strategies shaping the future of defense intelligence.
"The idea was to see if we could build an aircraft that had all the same capability of our original offering [for the Air Force's CCA program], and do it faster,” said Tom Jones, Northrop's head of aeronautic systems.