The Marine Corps’ pursuit of a fully missionized version of Kratos’ stealthy XQ-58A Valkyrie drone has taken another step forward with a new announcement that Northrop Grumman is now aiding in the effort. Northrop Grumman says it will deliver a “mission kit” that includes its Prism autonomy package, sensors, and other capabilities to help fully turn the Valkyrie into what looks set to be the Marines’ first operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
Northrop Grumman announced today it has received a competitively awarded deal in relation to what is formally known as the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. U.S. officials confirmed last year that the Marine Corps was moving to transition its experimental work with the XQ-58 into a full program of record to develop and field an operational CCA-type drone. The Marines have acquired at least three Valkyries since 2023. The U.S. Air Force is the only other known current operator of the XQ-58 and has been using the type for test and evaluation work since its first flight in 2019.
Under the newly announced deal, “Northrop Grumman will develop and rapidly deliver platforms that include” the aforementioned mission kit, “inclusive of sensors and software-defined technologies designed specifically for uncrewed aircraft,” according to a company press release. “The mission kit’s flexible technology can perform various kinetic and non-kinetic effects, making the platform a combat-ready asset.”
“Northrop Grumman’s open architecture autonomy software package – known as Prism – will manage the aircraft’s operations autonomously,” the release adds. The company has already been conducting flight testing involving Prism using the Model 437 Vanguard jet, now also referred to as Beacon, which was developed and built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
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“Northrop Grumman remains at the forefront of advanced sensing capabilities, delivering innovative solutions that meet the needs of the warfighter with unmatched speed and reliability,” Krys Moen, Vice President for Advanced Mission Capabilities, said in an accompanying statement. “This enhanced capability set ensures optimal performance for both crewed and uncrewed platforms.”
“The integration of the Kratos Valkyrie aircraft system configured with the world’s best multifunction mission systems from Northrop Grumman results in a high-capability CCA at a price point that enables the uncrewed systems to be deployed in mass with crewed aircraft,” Steve Fendley, President of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division, also said in a statement included in the release.
Northrop Grumman’s press release also highlights Kratos’ work on a derivative of the XQ-58 with built-in landing gear. As originally designed, Valkyrie is fully runway independent and takes off via a rocket-assisted method from a static launcher. The drone is then recovered via parachute at the end of the sortie. Kratos has also developed a special trolley that allows versions without fixed landing gear to take off from traditional runways.
Northrop Grumman has separately told Breaking Defense that its MUX TACAIR CCA deal is valued at approximately $231.5 million and covers work over a period of 24 months, and that is a so-called Other Transactional Agreement (OTA). The U.S. military uses the OTA mechanism to support rapid prototyping and other research and development work without having to go through more traditional and often more drawn-out contracting processes.
Official U.S. military budget documents released last year said that the Marines were looking to acquire at least one MUX TACAIR CCA prototype in a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) configuration. Kratos has referred to the fixed landing gear Valkyrie derivative as the CTOL version. However, whether that is the only configuration the Marines are eyeing now is unclear, and TWZ has reached out to Northrop Grumman, Kratos, and the Marine Corps for more details.
“So we’re obviously, we’ve been doing a lot of development work for the Marines, a lot of integration of mission systems, a lot of ground and flight test of those mission systems,” Kratos’ Fendley had told TWZ on the show floor of the annual Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C., last year. “And that’s continued to where we’re pretty close to having a couple final versions of the aircraft.”
TWZ has previously highlighted the value a runway-independent version would bring to the Marine Corps, given the service’s current focus on future expeditionary and distributed operations. Flexibility to operate from traditional runways, which could offer benefits in terms of total payload capacity and maximum range, could still be desirable, as well.
Overall, “the uncrewed weapons systems under development [as part of the MUX TACAIR program] will enhance Marine Corps Aviation’s lethality and ability to support the Stand-in Force (SiF) by delivering air-to-ground, reconnaissance, and Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities,” per the aforementioned budget documents. “The Marine Corps will use a spiral approach for capability insertion into TACAIR. MUX TACAIR Increment I will rapidly accelerate the time between development and fielding, ensuring rapid and relevant capability delivery of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to the warfighter.”
There has also been explicit talk about pairing the XQ-58 with the Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, and flight tests to explore this kind of crewed-uncrewed teaming have been carried out in the past.
Outside of work for the Marine Corps, beyond the aforementioned developments related to launching and recovering the Valkyrie, Kratos has been steadily working to expand the performance and other capabilities of the design. The company is separately working on a miniature cruise missile called Ragnarok, which the XQ-58 can carry in its internal bay and externally under its wings, and that you can read more about here. Renderings have also shown Valkyries with AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) under their wings. Northrop Grumman has put forward the uncrewed aircraft as a notional launch platform for its Lumberjack loitering one-way attack drone, as well.
The XQ-58 has a high degree of modularity baked in from the start. Kratos has long put heavy emphasis on open-architecture systems to make it easier to integrate new and improved capabilities and functionality down the line, as well.
Regardless of the aircraft’s physical configuration, there are many other questions the Marine Corps will still need to answer before it can truly field an operational CCA force, something the service itself has been open about and that TWZ regularly highlights. Much remains to be settled about how CCA-type drones will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated on a day-to-day basis, let alone employed tactically in a real-world combat environment.
“We still have a lot to learn simply to get this thing airborne, flying, and executing next to an F-35, and not hitting each other,” Col. Derek Brannon, director of the Marine Corps’ Cunningham Group, said at the Modern Day Marine exhibition last year. “I know there’s a lot of work out there, but that’s important to make sure that we become lethal.”
The Cunningham Group, which falls under the office of the Deputy Commandant for Aviation, is charged with plotting out the overall future course for Marine Corps aviation developments.
This all applies equally to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy CCA programs. All three services are pursuing their efforts in very close cooperation, including in the development of common command and control architectures. By the Navy’s own admission, the Air Force and Marine Corps CCA programs are much more mature than its effort.
Joining the Marine Corps MUX TACAIR program is an important development for Northrop Grumman as a company, which has been making other inroads in the growing CCA market space recently. In December, the Air Force announced that it had assigned a formal designation, YFQ-48A, to the Project Talon drone design developed by Northrop Grumman and its subsidiary Scaled Composites. The service also said at that time that the YFQ-48A, which had only been unveiled publicly earlier in the month, was a “strong contender” for inclusion in its CCA efforts. Project Talon leveraged lessons from Northrop Grumman’s losing entry in the competition for the first phase, or Increment 1, of the Air Force’s CCA program, as you can learn more about here. Last September, the Navy also confirmed that Northrop Grumman was among the companies it had awarded contracts to for the development of concepts for future carrier-based CCAs.
The Marine Corps moving to field an operational version of the Valkyrie has been significant for Kratos, as well. The company has been very actively pitching versions of the XQ-58 to other customers, including ones overseas. It is working now with Airbus to craft a version for the German armed forces. Kratos has also been seeing growing export success with other designs in its tactical drone portfolio.
When it comes to the Marine Corps CCA plans, the service has said it hopes to take delivery of the first prototype before the end of this year, and Northrop Grumman has now joined Kratos in working to make that a reality.
Update: 5:10 pm EST—
Northrop Grumman has now provided additional details about how it is working together with Kratos in relation to the MUX TACAIR CCA effort, and about what the company will be contributing.
“Northrop Grumman and Kratos teamed up to respond together to the Naval Aviation Systems Consortium Statement of Need Request for White Papers for USMC TACAIR Increment 1 (N00019-24-9-0021). Northrop Grumman and Kratos have collaborated successfully together on multiple projects in prime and support roles including Valkyrie,” a company spokesperson explained to TWZ. “Due to the collaborative integration needed for this solution, the team jointly decided Northrop Grumman as Lead Systems Integrator and Kratos as airframe subcontractor provided the best approach for MUX TACAIR.”
“The mission kit is a fully integrated sensor suite covering multiple functions and frequency bands,” they added. “Northrop Grumman is integrating both Northrop sensors and a variety of best of breed industry sensors into a low-cost integrated solution.”
“Kratos is teamed with NGC for mission configured Valkyrie derivatives and is also a subcontractor on the MUX TACAIR contract providing Valkyrie aircraft, supporting development and testing including flight testing, and supporting integration of NGC mission systems for the ultimate Marines CCA product, which Kratos will manufacture in Oklahoma City,” a spokesperson for that company also separately told TWZ.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com