Northrop Grumman and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions are teaming up to build autonomous drone wingmen for the U.S. Marine Corps, the companies announced Thursday.
The two firms will work together on Kratos’ autonomous Valkyrie drone, to rapidly prepare it to fly alongside some of the Marine Corps’ crewed fighters and operate in high-threat environments, Northrop and Kratos said in a statement. The program is called the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft, or MUX TACAIR, collaborative combat aircraft.
Krys Moen, Northrop’s vice president for advanced mission capabilities, said in a statement to Defense News that the contract is an other transaction agreement deal, initially valued at $231.5 million for a performance period of 24 months.
“Northrop Gruman remains at the forefront of advanced sensing capabilities, delivering innovative solutions that meet the needs of the warfighter with unmatched speed and reliability,” Moen said in the companies’ release. “This enhanced capability set ensures optimal performance for both crewed and uncrewed platforms.”
A Marine Corps statement was not immediately available.
Kratos’ Valkyrie, officially known as the XQ-58, has been extensively tested by the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps in recent years, particularly as part of the Air Force’s Skyborg program, which laid the groundwork for autonomous drone wingman programs the military refers to as collaborative combat aircraft.
CCAs are intended to fly with minimal direction from the pilots flying nearby them, extending those fighters’ reach and effectiveness at an affordable cost. They could carry out strike missions, jam enemy signals using electronic warfare technology, conduct reconnaissance or serve as decoys to lure enemy fire.
The Air Force has made a top priority of adding CCAs to their fleet, to fly alongside crewed fighters such as the F-35 and the next-generation F-47 now being developed, and the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have followed with their own CCA efforts.
The Marine Corps made the Valkyrie a program of record in 2025. Last August, following that decision, Kratos’ chief executive Eric DeMarco told company investors new variants of the Valkyrie drone would be built in the U.S. for the Marine Corps and would be the Corps’ first CCA.
The companies said the Marine Corps’ Valkyrie CCA would be able to tackle multiple missions with its modular airframe and payload bays, allowing it to be customized for specific effects. It will have conventional takeoff and landing capabilities.
“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, said in the companies’ joint statement.
Northrop Grumman will provide an advanced mission kit for the Valkyrie containing sensors and other software-defined technologies, tailored for uncrewed aircraft by packaging them into a smaller envelope. The companies said these technologies will be flexible and perform a variety of kinetic and nonkinetic actions, which will make the Valkyrie ready to engage in combat in multiple ways.
This Valkyrie will run using Northrop’s open architecture autonomy software package, which the company calls Prism.
This is the second major advancement for Northrop Grumman in the CCA market in as many months. In December, the Air Force announced that it had given Northrop’s new Talon drone the designation YFQ-48A, and called it a “strong contender” to join the service’s CCA program.
Kratos’ growing stature as a company specializing in autonomous drones has also helped it significantly grow its defense revenues and rise in the rankings of defense contractors. The company ranked 91st on the Defense News Top 100 list last year, and brought in $988.7 million in defense revenue.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
