Shield AI Demos Autonomous Multi-Jet Aircraft Collaboration

Technology company Shield AI has conducted a “groundbreaking” demonstration of coordinated autonomous flight on two Kratos MQM-178 Firejets.

The planes were flown by the company’s Hivemind artificial intelligence pilots, collaborating to execute coordinated maneuvers under realistic combat scenarios. 

All computing was executed on board, and communication “seamlessly integrated” on board the aircraft, the San Diego-based firm said.

“In the next decade, AI pilots will command and maneuver all unmanned systems, enabling the US and our allies to deploy millions of intelligent, resilient drones,” Shield AI President Brandon Tseng commented.

He called the flight tests a “key milestone” in the company’s goal of bringing autonomy to the world.

“What’s awesome is that the algorithms are not limited to the number of aircraft. For test objectives and budgetary reasons, we limited the number of Firejets to 2, but it could have been 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on,” he added.

Building on Earlier Successes

The “first ever” autonomous teaming trial builds on multiple flight tests completed with the Kratos aircraft earlier this year, now the sixth flown by Shield AI’s Hivemind AI Pilot. 

In June, the US Coast Guard announced it had awarded the company a $198.1-million contract to deliver its V-BAT drone to the service.

The deal supports the coast guard’s efforts to employ autonomous craft from its cutters for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. 

A Shield AI team also completed its inaugural Live Virtual Constructive integration in the same month, which bridges live platforms with virtual environments and enables dynamic interactions across different domains.

In September last year, the company completed an autonomous swarming demonstration of three V-BATs in an autonomy project led by AFWERX.