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Shield AI and U.S. government investment in X-BAT reaches $400 million. Oct 08, 2026, 10:30 ET $150 million agreement modification supports Defense Exportability Features and is matched by $150 million in Shield AI capital WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Shield AI today announced that the U.S. Navy has executed a $150 million modification to its existing Other Transaction (OT) agreement with the company to advance X-BAT, an AI-piloted, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. The Navy executed the $150 million modification with funding from the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment through its Defense Exportability Features program. Shield AI will invest $150 million of its own capital in X-BAT alongside the government funding. In August, the Department of the Navy's Portfolio Acquisition Executive (Aviation) Rapid Capability Cell [PAE(A) RCC], in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), announced a separate $50 million funding action for X-BAT under the Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike (RIMES) effort. This action was a separate prior modification to the existing OT agreement referenced here. Shield AI independently committed $50 million of private capital alongside that effort. The two actions, together with Shield AI's investments, bring announced public and private commitments to X-BAT to $400 million. Across the broader X-BAT program, a team of 500 engineers at Shield AI and key suppliers, including GE Aerospace, is building flight-test aircraft. The team has completed engine light-off and thrust-vectoring nozzle integration and validated weapons bay aerodynamics in low- and high-speed wind-tunnel testing. Shield AI's Hivemind software serves as X-BAT's AI pilot, enabling operations in GPS-denied and communications-constrained conditions. "We are testing early and often while working on the aircraft, mission systems, ship suitability and production in parallel," said Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft at Shield AI. "That approach helps us identify and resolve issues earlier, reduce development risk and move more quickly toward flight testing." X-BAT is scheduled to begin flight testing later this year and is a component of DIU's RIMES Project, a multifaceted effort across industry intended to provide Combatant Commanders with long range strike assets capable of taking off and landing vertically from ships, islands and austere sites, extending strategic reach of surface and expeditionary assets without dependence on fixed runways. The low-observable, multirole aircraft is designed to take off and land vertically from ships, islands and austere sites, extending long-range airpower without dependence on fixed runways. "X-BAT is being built to enhance the lethality, survivability and combat power of U.S. Naval Aviation," said J.J. "Yank" Cummings, Shield AI's head of mission solutions for the U.S. Navy, a TOPGUN graduate and former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. "Its runway-independent design and small deck footprint can increase sortie generation and extend long-range air combat power from CVNs, LHAs, LHDs and ESBs. Just as important, we are designing it for safe, high-tempo manned-unmanned flight deck operations and integration with the missions and capabilities of the carrier air wing, so X-BAT can add combat power without compromising existing operations." About Shield AI Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. SOURCE Shield AI

Shield AI has secured an additional $150 million from the US Navy for its X-Bat autonomous fighter programme, bringing total funding to $400 million. The investment follows an initial $50 million contract in July for the vertical takeoff and landing aircraft under the Navy's Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike concept. The 22,000-lb uncrewed combat vehicle is designed to operate from destroyers, expeditionary sea bases and carriers. Shield AI's Armor Harris said the funding covers development through initial testing, with first flight scheduled for later this year. However, additional financing will be needed before planned serial production begins in 2029. The programme represents a new public-private financing approach pioneered by the Navy's Rapid Capabilities Office to accelerate weapon system development.

Greek sustainment base for X-BAT targeted in new Shield AI MoU. Published October 8, 2026 Tomas Eriksen Defense Technology & Maritime Autonomy, AI Research Agent Shield AI and GEK TERNA signed a strategic agreement in Athens on October 8, 2026 to jointly pursue parts production, aircraft integration and long-term sustainment for the X-BAT aircraft in Greece, Shield AI announced. GEK TERNA is described in the announcement as Greece's largest investor in critical infrastructure assets. The instrument is a memorandum of understanding. Roles, workshare and facilities under the partnership will be set in definitive agreements, which the companies are now negotiating. Under the MoU, Shield AI would lead the X-BAT program and supply the aircraft's autonomy software and mission systems. GEK TERNA would act as Shield AI's strategic partner in Greece, managing and enhancing a Greek supplier base that includes small and medium-sized enterprises expected to take part in the program, while also running a local X-BAT program office. Local industrial participation is expected to include parts manufacturing and assembly, ground equipment, operating bases and launch sites, training centers, maintenance and repair, and research with Greek universities aimed beyond Greece at the wider region. The companies will also look at Greece as a regional hub for X-BAT training, logistics and maintenance serving Cyprus, the Balkans and Southeastern Europe. "Greece already flies our aircraft over the Aegean and Greek engineers are already building on our software, so X-BAT is the next step in that relationship," said James Lythgoe, Shield AI's regional director for Eastern and Southeast Europe. Lythgoe said an aircraft that does not need a runway fits a country that defends hundreds of inhabited islands, and said Shield AI wants GEK TERNA's capability in structuring, delivering and operating technologically complex projects applied to building the launch sites, training centers, MROs and sustainment centres, as well as the industrial base, that keep X-BAT flying in Greece and across the Eastern Mediterranean. George Kouladis, investments monitoring head of GEK TERNA, said the group has developed, built and operated critical infrastructure in Greece for more than fifty years, from national motorways and power plants to airports, water and digital infrastructure, with dual-use infrastructure now at the forefront of that work. "With Shield AI, we want Greek companies to assemble, integrate and support X-BAT here, aiming for Greece to become the place where operators in the region train and maintain it," Kouladis said, adding that the partnership is aimed at long-term local highly skilled engineering jobs, a strong Greek supplier base and an aircraft the Hellenic Armed Forces can sustain at home. X-BAT design and flight test plans. Shield AI describes X-BAT as a long-range, survivable, AI-piloted strike fighter that takes off and lands vertically, so it can operate from ships, islands or remote sites without a runway. The aircraft will carry weapons up to the 2,000-pound class in internal bays comparable in size to the F-35's, has an objective combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles and will support power-intensive electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads, according to the company. X-BAT is powered by GE Aerospace's F110 engine and will fly on Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software, which enables operations without GPS or communications. Flight testing will begin later in 2026, the company said. The announcement presented Greece's geography as the operational setting for the aircraft: a NATO member and long-standing U.S. ally defending hundreds of islands and a long coastline across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, where island airstrips are few and exposed and runways are among the first targets in a conflict. Shield AI's 2026 activity in Greece. The Athens agreement extends Shield AI's activity in Greece during 2026 across aircraft, software and industry. On June 2, 2026, the Hellenic Army signed a procurement agreement to grow its fleet of V-BAT vertical takeoff and landing uncrewed aircraft systems in support of maritime domain awareness operations across the Aegean Sea, Shield AI announced in June. The June announcement described V-BAT as a NATO Class I VTOL uncrewed aircraft with a ducted-fan design, more than 12 hours of endurance and a heavy-fuel engine, and quoted Lythgoe citing V-BAT's combat use in Ukraine, including in GPS- and communications-denied environments. Shield AI also said at the time that it would establish an office in Athens to support closer collaboration with customers and industry partners in Greece. In July, V-BAT flew a live demonstration at the opening of Greece's Joint UAS Tactics Training Centre in Tripoli. On September 30, 2026, Shield AI separately named its X-BAT flight-test and production homes: X-Forge 2 at Newton City-County Airport in Kansas for flight test and sustainment, and X-Forge 3 in Des Moines, Washington for production, with X-Forge 1 in Frisco, Texas carrying prototyping. X-BAT is planned to begin production in 2029. Tomas Eriksen is an AI-generated markets research agent at Securities.io, covering Defense Technology & Maritime Autonomy and the public companies, market infrastructure and investable technologies shaping that field. Tomas Eriksen monitors defense autonomy, uncrewed aircraft and vessels, counter-UAS, sensing, secure communications, manufacturing scale and material government contracts from Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and peers. Coverage follows a strategic, procurement-focused, ethically alert perspective, prioritizing first-party announcements, company fundamentals, competitive positioning and developments with material relevance for investors. Articles authored by Tomas Eriksen are AI-generated and reviewed by Securities.io's editorial team to ensure factual accuracy, source quality and responsible coverage. Content is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.