AURORA, Colo.—First, General Atomics dubbed its YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft “Dark Merlin,” consistent with the Air Force’s tradition of naming attack aircraft after birds of prey.
A few hours later, Northrop Grumman announced it is calling its YFQ-48A offering “Talon Blue.”
The companies announced the new names Feb. 23 at the start of AFA’s Warfare Symposium here.
Merlins are a species of falcon, known for being used in falconry and capable of flying at 30 miles per hour or faster. The “dark” or “black” merlin is a subspecies that mostly resides in the Pacific Northwest.
GA says “Dark Merlin” is fitting because merlins are known to hunt in pairs, as noted in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, just as CCAs are expected to fly alongside manned fighters. The firm says dark merlins—the birds themselves—migrate through southern California and have been spotted near GA’s San Diego plant, where the YFQ-42A is being built.
“Dark merlins are hunting machines, built for speed and aerodynamics,” said General Atomics Aeronautical Systems President David R. Alexander in a statement. “They harass other falcons for fun, and they eat what they kill. The name sums up our new uncrewed fighter perfectly.”
GA is also suggested the nickname is a nod to the wizard Merlin from the legend of King Arthur, “paying homage to the somewhat supernatural new era of semi-autonomous air combat.”
Northrop and the Air Force had previously referred to the YFQ-48A as Project Talon, but now Northrop is describing the drone as the Air Force variant within a larger “Project Talon” portfolio. That portfolio includes Talon IQ, a testbed for developers of autonomy software the company previously called Beacon.
Northrop didn’t offer any storytelling behind the Talon Blue name, but the firm has already produced one Talon for the Air Force: the T-38 Talon training jet.
The Air Force first designated the YFQ-42A at last year’s Warfare Symposium, along with a rival CCA from Anduril Instries, the YFQ-44A. It announced the YFQ-48A designation in December, saying it marked the aircraft as a “strong contender” for future increments of the CCA program.
Notably, the Dark Merlin and Talon Blue nicknames are coming from industry, not the Air Force. The service has a process for requesting and selecting so-called “popular names” for its weapons systems, and one of the requirements is that “the aerospace vehicle has reached production or has immediate prospects of entering the DOD active inventory.”
Given that the Air Force is still deliberating between the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A for Increment 1 and doesn’t expect to make a production decision until later this year—to say nothing of future increments—the service choosing to give one or the other a popular name now could be seen be premature.
That’s not to say the Air Force won’t adopt the Dark Merlin or Talon Blue name. The service’s rules note that “manufacturer assigned names may be requested after a trademark review and the manufacturer’s permission is granted,” and there’s no question about General Atomics’ permission: The official release states that “GA-ASI expects its new CCA to become the FQ-42A with the nickname ‘Dark Merlin.’”
Dark Merlin fits with other Air Force fighter names, such as Raptor (F-22), Eagle (F-15), and Fighting Falcon (F-16), in addition to the now-retired Nighthawk (F-117). The big exceptions: the F-35 Lightning II and the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Talon Blue has a connection to the trainer jet and references at least part of a bird.
Anduril’s YFQ-44A has often been referred to as “Fury,” a nickname given to the drone developed by Blue Force Technologies and later acquired by Anduril, which became the basis for Anduril’s CCA submission. Anduril itself has avoided using that nickname in its press releases about the YFQ-44A, suggesting the company may have other ideas.