NATO drone runs with jammed links
A NATO-member deployed a military drone that can continue flying and making decisions even when its communications are jammed, combining VTOL takeoff with fixed-wing range. The report highlights on-board autonomy designed to keep missions alive under contested network conditions, with vendors presenting resilience as a core capability. (interestingengineering.com)
A military drone that can keep flying when radio links are jammed is now operational with the Royal Netherlands Navy after tests from the HNLMS *Johan de Witt* off northern Norway. (interestingengineering.com) The aircraft is Shield AI’s V-BAT, an uncrewed system built for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting. The company said the Dutch navy has acquired 12 V-BATs, and eight naval vessels will be fitted to support operations. (shield.ai) A jammed link means an enemy is interfering with the drone’s communications or satellite navigation, cutting the connection that usually lets operators steer it or track it. Shield AI says V-BAT was designed for “electronic warfare” conditions, including communications-denied and Global Navigation Satellite System-denied environments. (shield.ai, shield.ai) The flight concept is simple: it lifts off vertically like a helicopter, then flies forward like a small airplane. That lets crews launch it from ship decks, rooftops, and small clearings without a runway, catapult, or recovery gear. (interestingengineering.com, shield.ai) For the Dutch navy, that matters because its ships operate from the high Arctic to the Caribbean, often far from large airfields. The Ministry of Defence’s own equipment magazine said in 2025 that V-BAT was meant to be operational from four ships by early 2026 as part of a faster push to meet North Atlantic Treaty Organization readiness goals. (shield.ai, magazines.defensie.nl) The *Johan de Witt* is an amphibious transport ship — part airfield, part port, part command center — so it is a natural test bed for a runway-free drone. During the evaluation, the navy used V-BAT to send real-time video back to the ship so commanders could inspect objects on the water and scout alternate routes. (defensie.nl, interestingengineering.com) Shield AI says the drone has more than 12 hours of endurance and uses a heavy-fuel engine, a common military preference because ships and forward units already carry that fuel. The company also says the enclosed rotor reduces deck hazards compared with exposed blades in tight launch areas. (shield.ai, shield.ai) The autonomy piece is the selling point. Shield AI says its systems are built so missions can continue when operators lose communications, manual control becomes unreliable, or crews are overloaded by too many feeds at once. (shield.ai, shield.ai) The company has been marketing that resilience aggressively as European militaries absorb lessons from Ukraine, where drones are routinely disrupted by jamming and spoofing. In March, Shield AI said V-BAT had also demonstrated cold-weather performance in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s ARENA HEIMDALL exercise. (shield.ai, atlasinstitute.org) What the Dutch navy has put into service is not just another camera drone, but a ship-launched aircraft meant to keep sensing when the network gets noisy or goes dark. That is the condition NATO planners now expect, not the exception. (shield.ai, shield.ai)
