Overview
- Shield AI’s Hivemind commanded the Talon IQ through combat air patrol and target‑engagement maneuvers during the first partner autonomy flight.
- During the sortie, control swapped in flight from Hivemind to Northrop’s Prism, demonstrating runtime switching between autonomy stacks.
- Hivemind advanced from a single day of hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing to real‑world flight on the Talon IQ platform.
- Northrop retrofitted the Scaled Composites Model 437‑based aircraft to host multiple autonomy providers, partnering with Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, Merlin Labs, Red 6, Shield AI and SoarTech.
- Separately, Northrop is self‑funding a YFQ‑48A CCA prototype as a production decision is expected later in 2026, with Anduril and GA‑ASI slated for formal service testing.