Hivemind Makes V-BAT Jam Resistant
Shield AI
This shows that Shield AI is moving the center of value from the airframe to the software that keeps the aircraft useful when the enemy is trying to blind it. V-BAT was already a practical long endurance drone because it can launch from ships or rough terrain without a runway, but adding Hivemind for jam resistance turned it into a drone that can still find targets and get home in the conditions that disable many cheaper systems.
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In practice, jamming resistance matters because V-BAT is sold for missions where GPS and communications may drop out. Hivemind handles takeoff, navigation, and landing onboard, which lets the same aircraft work from Coast Guard cutters, Navy vessels, and contested land theaters instead of depending on a clean radio link.
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The combat proof point in Ukraine is what makes the software story commercially powerful. Shield AI says V-BATs completed more than 35 missions and found more than 200 Russian targets in 2025, then expanded with allied customers including Romania, Japan, Greece, Canada, and Ukraine while also winning a $198.1M U.S. Coast Guard contract.
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Compared with peers like Quantum Systems, which sells modular ISR drones with GPS denied features, Shield AI is pushing harder toward a platform agnostic autonomy business. Hivemind is already being licensed to Airbus, Kratos, and L3Harris, which means battlefield performance on V-BAT can help sell software even when Shield AI does not supply the aircraft.
The next step is a defense market where autonomy software becomes the deciding layer and the aircraft becomes the delivery vehicle for that software. If V-BAT keeps proving it can survive jamming at scale, Shield AI can use each field deployment to pull through both more drone sales and more Hivemind licenses across allied fleets.