Pictured is a Shield AI graphic of future X-BAT fighter drones on their vertical take-off and landing stands.
Shield AI plans to conduct initial vertical takeoff and landing demonstrations of its X-BAT drone fighter jet “as early as fall 2026, followed by all-up flight testing and operational validation in 2028,” according to a spokeswoman for the effort.
The company said this week that the X-BAT is to have a more than 2,000 mile range and to be guided by Shield AI’s Hivemind artificial intelligence software.
The X-BAT–an autonomous fighter drone for expeditionary and maritime operations when military forces lack GPS and communications–is to operate from “ships, remote islands, or austere sites — no runways or tankers needed,” the company said. “This removes reliance on traditionally vulnerable infrastructure, and ensures forces can respond swiftly, even in the most challenging conditions.”
The development of X-BAT follows Shield AI’s V-BAT, a vertical takeoff and landing autonomous drone which is a program of record for the Marine Corps and is used on Coast Guard National Security Cutters to replace that service’s ScanEagles by Boeing‘s Insitu subsidiary.
“Airpower without runways is the holy grail of deterrence,” Shield AI President Brandon Tseng said in a Monday statement on X-BAT. “It gives our forces persistence, reach, and survivability, and it buys diplomacy another day.”
Shield AI said that X-BAT will fit a number of roles, including strike, counter air, electronic warfare, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
“Up to three X-BATs fit in the deck space of one legacy fighter or helicopter, multiplying sortie generation and tempo,” according to Shield AI, adding that X-BAT will be a “fraction of the cost” of traditional fighters.
Shield AI said in June that the V-BAT has flown more than 170 sorties in Ukraine. An article in the Aug. 1st Kyiv Independent cited a Shield AI official that V-BATs in Ukraine had spotted 140 Russian strategic targets, including artillery and surface-to-air missiles, such as the SA-22 Pantsir, but that” in over a hundred of those instances, they could not find a Ukrainian strike drone that could reach those targets in time.”
The U.S. Defense Department and NATO have not released any reports on the performance of U.S.-built systems, including V-BAT, during the more than three and a half year war in Ukraine.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.