Mission autonomy software flown on autonomous testbed by Northrop Grumman, Shield AI
NewsMarch 20, 2026
MOJAVE, California. Northrop Grumman’s Talon IQ testbed completed a mission autonomy flight using Shield AI’s Hivemind software, demonstrating third-party software integration on the aircraft’s open-architecture platform, the company announced in a statement.
According to the statement, Hivemind controlled the aircraft during the flight and carried out combat air patrol and target engagement maneuvers before control shifted back to Northrop Grumman’s Prism autonomy software. Northrop Grumman says the flight was intended to show that Talon IQ can host outside autonomy software without requiring a separate aircraft for each system under test.
The company says the testbed uses the Scaled Composites Model 437 aircraft and is designed as a modular environment for developing, integrating, and flight-testing mission autonomy software. According to the statement, the flight also showed that Talon IQ can support third-party artificial intelligence software while aligning with U.S. government reference architectures for interoperability and security.
Northrop Grumman says Shield AI’s software moved from hardware-in-the-loop testing to flight after one day of testing. The company says the result is meant to support faster development and evaluation of autonomy software for future defense applications.
