Shield AI on Tuesday said it has received a contract from Naval Air Systems Command to integrate its artificial intelligence aircraft pilot software onto the Kratos Defense [KTOS] BQM-177A high-speed aerial target drone that is used to emulate cruise missile threats against ships.
The integration will mark the eighth aircraft that will receive Shield AI’s autonomous flight capability.
The BQM-177A is a recoverable target that simulates advanced subsonic anti-ship cruise missile threats to test shipboard air defense systems and can also be used to emulate air-to-air combat. The aerial target is capable of speeds greater than 0.95 Mach and can skim within 6.6 feet of the sea surface and has a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet.
Integration of the Hivemind AI pilot on the aerial targeting system will allow the Navy to test and exercise its shipboard defense systems against fast-moving autonomous anti-ship drones and drone swarms that the service may one day be up against if the U.S. squares off against China, which is seen to be advancing AI technology for its weapon systems.
The BQM-177 achieved full operational capability with the Navy in August 2022.
Shield AI is targeting about five months or less to first flight with its Hivemind software aboard the BQM-177, highlighting the flexibility of the AI pilot’s open systems design.
“The last integration we did was about 165 days from contract award to first AI-piloted flights, and so we’re hoping to top that.” Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s co-founder and president, said in a statement. “I’m also excited to see what our AI pilot will do with the Kratos BQM-177, an amazing aircraft capable of flying 0.95 Mach and as low as 6.6 feet above the ocean.”
The most recent aircraft integration of Hivemind was on the Kratos MQM-178 Firejet aerial target vehicle, which has a max speed of 0.69 Mach. Hivemind is also being integrated on the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle that is expected to fly this year with the AI pilot. For Valkyrie, the two companies are doing the integration with their own funds.
Hivemind also flew an F-16 fighter aircraft in December 2022, an integration that took about 900 days, Tseng told
Defense Daily on Tuesday.
“You want to keep bringing that integration time down and you want to be on as many assets as possible,” he said. “That’s how we think about it. In the same way, Android is on many, many, many different handsets that are made by different vendors, Shield AI’s Hivemind we want on many different aircraft that are made by different vendors.”
Most critical components cannot be reused across different aircraft platforms but with Hivemind “you can reuse it across near every single platform in the fleet,” Tseng said.
Hivemind has also been integrated on and flown with Shield AI’s MQ-35A VBAT unmanned aircraft system, and three small quadcopter drones.
Shield AI did not disclose the value of the Navy contract or the period of performance. The award is with NAVAIR’s PMA-281 Strike Planning and Execution Systems program office.