Northrop Grumman YFQ-48 Talon Blue

The Northrop Grumman YFQ-48 Talon Blue is a loyal wingman type unmanned combat aerial vehicle under development by Northrop Grumman. It is one of the designs competing for Increment II of the United States Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and is intended to augment crewed fighters such as the F-15EX Eagle II, F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning through manned-unmanned teaming. It grew out of lessons from the company bid for Increment I, which was larger and more costly than the General Atomics YFQ-42 and Anduril YFQ-44 that went forward. Northrop Grumman and its subsidiary Scaled Composites began the smaller, simpler design as Project Lotus, later renamed Project Talon, with 50 percent fewer parts and about 454 kilograms less weight. The Air Force gave it the YFQ-48 designation in December 2025. It has swept lambda wings, V-tails and a top-mounted air inlet, and is powered by a variant of the PW500.