Shield AI Completes First Full-Scale X-BAT Prototype, Moves It to Kansas for Ground and Vertical-Flight Testing
Why It MattersA funded VTOL combat-aircraft prototype now entering ground testing marks a step toward runway-independent uncrewed strike platforms, widening the autonomous military aircraft field beyond the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft candidates.
Shield AI has completed the first full-scale prototype of its X-BAT autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) combat aircraft. It was built at the company's development facility in Frisco, Texas, about one year after the design was publicly unveiled in October 2025. The aircraft is now being transported to the company's X-Forge 2 flight test facility at Newton City-County Airport in Kansas, where engineers will begin evaluating its propulsion, launch and recovery systems. Armor Harris, Shield AI's senior vice president of aircraft engineering, announced the milestone in a company update.
The test campaign will begin with horizontal engine runs while the aircraft sits on its launch and recovery vehicle, followed by vertical engine testing and crane-supported tests before untethered flight. The crane-supported phase is meant to protect the prototype against engine stalls or other failures in early testing.
X-BAT is designed as a multirole uncrewed combat aircraft able to operate without conventional runways, performing air-to-ground strike, counterair, electronic warfare, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions from ships, remote islands and other austere locations. It uses Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software, intended for GPS-denied and communications-constrained environments. Shield AI says the aircraft is roughly twice the size of the aircraft in the U.S. Air Force's first Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) increment.
In August, the Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit announced a $50 million funding action for X-BAT under the Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike (RIMES) initiative. In October, Shield AI announced a further $150 million Navy agreement modification supporting defense exportability features. With matching company commitments, Shield AI puts total announced public and private investment in the program at $400 million.
Shield AI is targeting a mission-capable aircraft in 2028 and production in 2029. The Newton facility is designated X-BAT's flight test and sustainment center, while a site in Des Moines, Washington, will serve as production headquarters. The Air Force's Increment 1 CCA candidates, General Atomics' YFQ-42A and Anduril's YFQ-44A, have already entered flight testing.
