In a video interview with CNBC posted Sunday, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden highlighted the company’s commitment to acquisition reform and the rapid delivery of military capabilities, citing Project Talon, an autonomous system initiative, as an example.
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During the interview at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Warden, a nine-time Wash100 awardee, told CNBC host Morgan Brennan that Project Talon leverages the company’s extensive experience in autonomous operations and is focused on getting capability fielded in less than 24 months.
“We did this on our investment as a demonstration of how quickly we can move, and it’s not just about streamlining the design process,” Warden said of Project Talon. “It’s about building a design that can be quickly manufactured and scaled because we know that mass in getting high levels of capacity in place, so that we can produce at scale is important for the deterrent.”
What Is Northrop’s Project Talon?
Project Talon is an autonomous aircraft designed to fly alongside manned fighter jets. The recently launched initiative is the latest addition to Northrop’s portfolio of autonomous systems and seeks to advance collaboration between manned and uncrewed aircraft.
The project builds on Northrop’s seven decades of experience in autonomy and is supported by the company’s autonomous testbed ecosystem, called Beacon.
What Are Northrop CEO’s Thoughts on Golden Dome?
Warden, who also serves as chair and president of Northrop, also shared her thoughts on the Golden Dome missile defense initiative during the interview.
“Golden Dome is an important way of putting in place the homeland security infrastructure that we need to defend our nation against incoming threats,” she told Brennan. “It will be a complex system of integrated technologies, and we see many capabilities already existing today that can be deployed into that architecture, and then of course, there are some areas where there will need to be new capabilities developed, and we’re already starting to work on those as well.”
The Northrop CEO provided updates on two nuclear modernization programs: the B-21 strategic bomber and the Sentinel program.
She also discussed the impact of rising defense spending, noting that significant increases in the U.S. and allied budgets create opportunities for Northrop to partner globally, achieve economies of scale and speed up the delivery of weapons systems across the globe.
