Monday, November 8, 2021

Welcome to Northrop Grumman



  • This looks like a notional Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) manned platform. The Air Force and the Navy have parallel programs to develop their own NGAD concepts, which will be a family of systems, including unmanned aircraft and a long-range manned tactical type. This fits the bill. It's very big, stealthy, and has no vertical tails. It also has a hell of a chine line that wraps around the airframe. Its dorsal intake is also a very stealthy attribute. It is hard to tell, but if there is just one and not another intake on the other side, with the spine behind the cockpit flowing into it, it looks a bit similar to the Model 401 'Son of ARES' demonstrators that were built by Northrop Grumman's subsidiary Scaled Composites and are currently undergoing secretive test work. Still, it is likely the design has two intakes, one on each side. An NGAD demonstrator of some sort is already flying. It could be Northrop Grumman's for all we know, but there are likely to be major opportunities surrounding NGAD as the program spins up. Clearly, if they aren't involved now, they really want to be. 
  • Next, we have the pointy white nose that looks like one of Northrop Grumman's new affordable loyal wingman and unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) concepts. One of these is derived from — you guessed it — the Model 401, while the other is directly based on it. You can read about this family of airframes that Northrop Grumman wants to build for the Pentagon and possibly allied nations in this past post of ours.
  • Farthest back on the left is a flying-wing unmanned combat air vehicle very similar to the company's promising X-47B demonstrators that were painfully passed over by the Navy for a tanker and surveillance drone known today as MQ-25 Stingray. Boeing ended up winning that tender. Northrop Grumman recently told The War Zone that they are doing something new with the two X-47B airframes that were in storage. Hopefully, this is an indication of a second chance at life for the type or an offshoot of its cranked-kite flying wing design, as well as the procurement of a proper high-end, low-observable UCAV. More on this puzzling saga here. Northrop Grumman's concept art for the Air Force's MQ-Next initiative for what will replace the MQ-9 Reaper looked just like an X-47B. Regardless, the one shown in the video is carrier-capable, at least based on its nose bear launch bar.
  • In the background appears to be a B-21 Raider or an RQ-180 taking off — they share a similar planform. Almost certainly this is to indicate the B-21.

4 comments:

  1. Inventing all the stuff that will end up in the hands of China.

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  2. And the CCP has already hacked and downloaded all the specs and blueprints.

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  3. She's not hard to follow around, is she?
    Then...you realize she's probably an AI generated CGI.

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  4. Cube farms and low pay, We're Northrop Grumman...

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