Touchstone Advanced Composites, part of the Innovations business unit of Core Natural Resources, is fabricating complex structural tooling for Northrop Grumman's next-generation YFQ-48A Talon Blue Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). Touchstone Advanced Composites played an integral part in Talon Blue's successful autonomous taxi test in Mojave, California.

Touchstone is collaborating with Northrop Grumman to provide its unique CFOAM tooling material and to fabricate certain parts for the aircraft. Northrop Grumman is developing Talon Blue as a modular, cost-effective and rapidly deployable autonomous wingman with the most advanced manufacturing techniques.

Aircraft like this are built with a different philosophy than traditional manned fighters, emphasising scalability, adaptability, and cost. Touchstone's integrated capabilities make it well-suited for programmes requiring specialised, streamlined production, with an approach designed to move quickly and evolve seamlessly from prototype to full-scale manufacturing.

In particular, Touchstone's innovative CFOAM technology, which is used to make the tools or moulds for manufacturing composite aerospace parts, supports this philosophy by providing high-precision, thermally stable tools that can be readily modified as the aircraft is designed and easily transitioned from development to initial production. CFOAM is made from domestically sourced bituminous coal.

"Our focus is on bridging the gap between prototype and full-rate production without compromising performance," said Dan Connell, president of Core's Innovations business unit. "By providing a versatile material with tight control over thermal properties and material behaviour, we're able to support a faster, more adaptable engineering process as aircraft continue to evolve. CFOAM is a great example of how Core Natural Resources is creating new value propositions for coal, positioning it as a key material in next-generation applications across advanced manufacturing sectors such as aerospace and defence."