A U.S. defense technology company is developing a new artificial intelligence-piloted aircraft that can help the U.S. military prepare for a future conflict with China or other adversaries in the event of an adversary striking U.S. runways in an effort to ground U.S. aircraft.
According to Fox News, Shield AI, a U.S. defense technology company, is developing a new X-BAT aircraft piloted with artificial intelligence that is capable of flying without runways and without GPS, launching vertically, flying up to a height of 50,000 feet, flying a distance of over 2,000 nautical miles, and carrying out various strike or air defense missions.
Fox News reported that the X-BAT aircraft is designed to be capable of operating from small islands, ships, and improvised locations in the event of a future conflict.
“China has built this anti-access aerial denial bubble that holds our runways at risk,” Armor Harris, vice president of aircraft engineering at Shield AI, told Fox News. “They’ve basically said, ‘We’re not going to compete stealth-on-stealth in the air — we’ll target your aircraft before they even get off the ground.'”
Harris explained that while the United States has traditionally concentrated on the stealth and survivability of military aircraft in the air, it has left its aircraft vulnerable when grounded.
“The way to solve that problem is mobility,” Harris stated. “You’re always moving around. This is the only VTOL fighter being built today.”
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Fox News reported that the X-BAT aircraft is equipped with an autonomy system called Hivemind, which allows it to operate in difficult environments, reroute its flight around potential threats, and quickly identify enemy targets.
“It’s reading and reacting to the situation around it,” Harris told Fox News. “It’s not flying a pre-programmed route. If new threats appear, it can reroute itself or identify targets and then ask a human for permission to engage.”
While the aircraft can be piloted with artificial intelligence, Harris noted that a human will “always” be the “decision-maker” for the aircraft.
“It’s very important to us that a human is always involved in making the use of lethal force decision,” Harris stated. “That doesn’t mean the person has to be in the cockpit — it could be remote or delegated through tasking — but there will always be a human decision-maker.”
Emphasizing the threat of the X-BAT against adversaries like China, Harris said, “X-BAT presents an asymmetric dilemma to an adversary like China. They don’t know where it’s coming from, and the cost of countering it is high.”
Pictures of the X-BAT were shared recently on X, formerly Twitter, by Shield AI.
According to Fox News, Shield AI expected the X-BAT aircraft to be ready for combat by 2029.
A video of the X-BAT aircraft was released last week on YouTube.
