FIA 2026: Vectored thrust boosts Shield AI X-BAT’s VTOL capability

The first X-BAT should fly by the end of this year according to Armor Harris, senior vice president – aircraft at Shield AI.  The aircraft is powered by a GE F110-GE-129E engine, while the AVEN system is derived from 1990s experimental work to provide Lockheed Martin F-16s with three-dimensional thrust vectoring.

“X-BAT is designed to take off and land vertically from anywhere – no air base, no runway – and that capability lives or dies with propulsion,” Harris explained.

“The AVEN is what makes vertical flight possible on a platform of this size and capability. We’re applying it differently than it was ever before. Vertical flight requires fast gimbaling to maintain attitude control, a demand the original [AVEN] programme never had to meet.”

Functional checks and engine light-off tests have been completed at GE Aerospace’s test site in Peebles, Ohio. 

Harris noted: “Taking flight hardware with a proven track record and adapting it for that mission let us move through development at an incredible pace, instead of starting from zero. Completing this integration in a short timeframe shows what these combined teams can do. The next step is iterating our propulsion approach to make future versions faster, lighter and more capable.”

X-BAT is a long-range, survivable, artificial intelligence (AI)-piloted strike fighter. Powered by Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software, it can fly independently or as part of a force package with crewed aircraft. It will carry weapons in the 2,000lb class internally in bays comparable to those of the F-35.

It has 80Kw of electrical power, enough to run electronic warfare suites, allowing it to act autonomously as a jammer, along with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and active and passive radar modes. Combat radius will be 1,000 nautical miles.

Shield AI describes X-BAT as the world’s first AI-piloted VTOL fighter jet. The company says that more aircraft are lost on the ground than in flight during a conflict and that X-BAT is intended to solve that problem.

Shephard’s Farnborough International Airshow coverage is sponsored by MBDA