SandboxAQ Tests GPS-Free Navigation on Northrop Grumman Drone

Insider Brief

• SandboxAQ and Northrop Grumman completed what they described as the first test combining magnetic and visual navigation on an attritable, one-way attack drone.
• SandboxAQ’s AQNav system provided Northrop Grumman’s Lumberjack drone with positioning capabilities that do not depend on GPS or other externally transmitted signals.
• Engineers installed the hardware-agnostic AQNav software on the drone’s existing computing systems in less than an hour, according to SandboxAQ.
• Image: Northrop Grumman

PRESS RELEASE — – SandboxAQ announced it has successfully completed the world’s first reported test of a magnetic navigation (MagNav) system on an attritable platform – Northrop Grumman’s Lumberjack®, a Group 3 UAS attritable drone. It was also the world’s first reported instance of a MagNav system being paired with a visual navigation system on an attritable, one-way attack platform. SandboxAQ has collaborated with Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) to integrate and test its commercial, dual-use AQNav MagNav technology on this unmanned aircraft system.

Conflicts in Ukraine and the Persian Gulf States prove small, expendable drones are now regularly operating in GPS-denied and spoofed environments. UAVs are a tool of war in these conflicts and militaries around the world are ramping up their stockpiles of drones. Northrop Grumman’s Lumberjack, a one-way-attack drone, was designed and developed in under 14 months of its first flight. The versatility and modularity of this technology highlights Northrop Grumman’s multi-use, loitering munition capabilities.