In the past, Scaled Composites provided the following general details about the original Model 437 configuration, which was something of a crewed surrogate for the company’s Model 437 unmanned collaborative combat aircraft concept:

“The Model 437 began as a conceptual design, based on the Model 401, exploring a multi-mission low-cost attritable aircraft. The Model 437 Vanguard is a crewed variant of the original concept powered by a single Pratt & Whitney 535 engine with approximately 3,400 pounds of thrust. The aircraft has a wingspan of 41 feet and is 41 feet long with a gross takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds. After completion of envelope expansion, the Model 437 Vanguard will have a range of approximately 3,000 nautical miles and an endurance of six hours. The aircraft can carry up to 2,000 pounds of payload in multiple locations, including an internal weapons bay sized to accommodate two AIM-120s.”

The Model 437’s Beacon modifications makes it more capable of optionally autonomous and optionally crewed flight using new software payloads. When it comes to optionally crewed aircraft, Scaled Composites has a wealth of experience in this field, including its Firebird surveillance aircraft. 

Prior to this latest milestone, the company had spent nine months reworking the jet’s avionics and power systems so that they could interface with new autonomous controllers.

The Beacon program, which was originally unveiled in June has Northrop Grumman partnered with six defense tech companies: Applied Intuition, Autonodyne, Merlin Labs, Red 6, Shield AI, and SoarTech.

The thinking behind Beacon is to develop an open-access testbed ecosystem, combining flight hardware (and some software) from Northrop Grumman together with software provided by the six partners. The result will provide “an integrated environment that mimics relevant mission scenarios,” helping yield autonomous flight-software solutions.

By “using Northrop Grumman’s flight hardware, proven autonomous flight software and integration expertise, third-party partners can test and refine their solutions through an open-access approach aligned to government requirements,” Northrop Grumman added in a press release when the program was announced earlier this summer.

Essentially, the baseline autonomous flight software from Northrop Grumman will ensure the aircraft can fly safely. This software is, in turn, open and modular, making it straightforward for the partner — and potentially others — to load and test their own autonomous mission software on top of it. This additional software will include technology that focuses on the tactical aspects of U.S. Air Force missions.

The six startups and smaller tech companies will be able to use the adapted Model 437 Vanguard to test their own autonomous technologies, something that would otherwise be beyond their reach or prohibitively expensive. Using Vanguard, testing could be carried out rapidly and affordably, according to Jones. He said the aircraft is cheap to fly and easy to maintain.

According to Tom Pieronek, chief technology officer at Northrop Grumman, the plan is for the Model 437 Vanguard to fly as frequently as possible, perhaps even completing multiple sorties each day. In fact, more than one autonomous mission software package can be installed in the aircraft at any one time, with the pilot using a cockpit tablet to switch between them in flight.

“Beacon is about collaboration across industry between companies of all sizes and expertise,” Jones said back in July. “By providing open access to the Beacon ecosystem, we’re enhancing the innovation, new competition, and ultimately the autonomous capabilities that industry can deliver to our customers — with unmatched speed and at scale.”

When new autonomous technology arrives, the plan is to be able to install it and test it in the aircraft rapidly.

“By being able to use open mission systems and standards and work things like Beacon, we can literally software define something today and test it tomorrow,” said Kevin Fesler, chief customer officer at Red 6. 

“The operative goal is not, ‘Can you get something done beautifully in 10 years? … ” added Jack Zaientz, vice president of C4I and autonomy at SoarTech. “It’s ‘go figure it out, talk amongst yourselves.’” 

At this stage, Beacon is being run using Northrop Grumman’s internal research and development funds.

Before the end of the year, the Model 437 Vanguard should be flown with Northrop Grumman’s own Prism autonomous flight software installed. Initially, a safety pilot will be in the cockpit, able to override the software if needed.

“This is optionally autonomous. The idea being, there are very rigorous rules around airworthiness and safety certification that potentially could stand in the road of rapid innovation in the field of bringing autonomy and AI to fruition for our warfighters,” Jones continued. “By being able to integrate test pilots with the solution and have the ability to always have that safeguard there, we’re able to very rapidly integrate.” 

Ultimately, the plan is for the Beacon program to prove autonomous flight software before feeding it into future aircraft programs, reducing risk in the development process.

One of the main programs that Beacon is expected to inform is the Air Force’s CCA effort, which seeks to field successive iterations of uncrewed combat tactical jets that feature a high degree of autonomy.

Also speaking at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference this week was Chris Gentile, general manager for Merlin Labs, one of the defense tech partners in Beacon. He specifically pointed to the need for an autonomous flight software testbed to help the CCA program.

In particular, as you can read all about here, there are questions about how the Air Force can best bridge autonomous and crewed formations while building trust in the autonomy. Overcoming this challenge is fundamental to achieving the aspiration of future crewed-uncrewed teaming.

“If you look at what venues I have as a performer in this space, as a nation, to test these things, it just doesn’t exist. There has been [only one] representative CCA flight ever in the United States, just two weeks ago, and that was primarily remotely operated — not autonomous in any way.”

CCA is not the only Air Force effort looking at bringing autonomy to its aircraft. The service has also been looking at the potential for autonomy in uncrewed cargo aircraft and aerial refueling platforms, to name just two. Jones has also said that he expects interest in Beacon from foreign customers, as well as the U.S. military. 

The U.S. Air Force is meanwhile also flying its own testbed for autonomous flight software, the X-62A Variable-stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA), which you can read more about here. Aside from VISTA, other platforms are also now involved in developing autonomous technologies, including but not limited to the MQ-20 Avenger drone, adapted L-29 Delfin trainers, subscale drones, and actual CCAs.

More broadly, there is now a race underway to rapidly prove and improve autonomy models, something that we have discussed in the past in relation to Shield AI and General Atomics.

However, according to Dan Javorsek, president at AI firm EpiSci, the VISTA testbed is not up to the job of fully proving the kinds of technologies required to give CCAs, for example, the required level of autonomy.

Speaking at the same event, Javorsek described VISTA, as well as Project VENOM, in which the Air Force is outfitting six F-16s with autonomy agents, as “completely insufficient.”

“It turns out that to develop precisely the algorithms that you’re going to take into combat with you, you need a place and a playground to go and do this,” Javorsek said.

Under the Beacon program, the Model 437 Vanguard aircraft should be that “playground” testbed, with the key advantage of being optionally manned in a purpose-built platform, one that also represents a real CCA-like design. Now, with a first flight in its new configuration under its belt, it’s on the path to meeting its goals.

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