U.S. Navy invests $50M in Shield AI’s runway-free strike drone

The U.S. Navy’s Rapid Capability Office, PAE Aviation and the Defense Innovation Unit are investing $50 million to scale unmanned, runway-independent maritime strike capabilities built around Shield AI’s X-BAT aircraft, the Navy announced.

The funding falls under the Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike program, or RIMES, which the Defense Innovation Unit and Navy launched in February to develop a strike drone capable of operating from surface combatants that lack the flight decks, catapults or arrested landing systems conventional carrier-based aircraft require. The Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, with 74 hulls currently active in the fleet, can land a helicopter but cannot deploy a fixed-wing strike aircraft, a gap the program is intended to close.

The investment builds on existing risk-reduction work led by the PAE Aviation Rapid Capability Cell with Shield AI. The award was made using the Middle Tier of Acquisition Rapid Prototype approach and an Other Transaction Authority contract, according to the Navy.

X-BAT is a vertical takeoff and landing, jet-powered aircraft Shield AI first unveiled in October 2025. The company has said the aircraft has a range exceeding 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 kilometers) with a full mission payload, a service ceiling above 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), and a wingspan of about 39 feet (11.9 meters). Shield AI has said X-BAT is designed for strike, counter-air, electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and that its Hivemind autonomy software allows it to operate in communications-denied or degraded environments.

“Airpower without runways is the holy grail of deterrence,” Shield AI co-founder and president Brandon Tseng said when the aircraft was unveiled. “It gives our forces persistence, reach and survivability, and it buys diplomacy another day.”

Shield AI has said X-BAT will initially be powered by GE Aerospace’s F110-GE-129 engine, with a first flight targeted for 2026. The company already supplies the Navy and other services with its smaller V-BAT unmanned aircraft, which has flown more than 170 sorties in Ukraine and supports a nearly $200 million Coast Guard contract for contractor-owned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services.

The $50 million RIMES investment does not disclose a timeline for X-BAT flight testing or deployment aboard Navy destroyers, and the Navy has not said how many aircraft the program is expected to procure.