Shield AI to Provide 'Brains' for Anduril Fury Drone
The U.S. Air Force has selected Shield AI to provide the autonomy software for the Anduril Fury uncrewed fighter jet. The partnership brings together two prominent defense startups to equip the autonomous aircraft, which will be manufactured in Ohio. The selection signals the Pentagon's continued backing of AI-native companies for major defense programs.
- This selection is part of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, which aims to pair hundreds of autonomous drones with crewed fighter jets to provide "affordable mass." The Air Force has stated a goal of acquiring at least 1,000 CCAs. - The Anduril Fury, designated YFQ-44A, was originally developed by Blue Force Technologies as a high-performance "aggressor" drone for pilot training. Anduril acquired the company in September 2023 and adapted the design for the CCA competition. - Shield AI's Hivemind software acts as an AI pilot, enabling aircraft to operate in environments where GPS and communications are denied or unavailable. It is designed to be platform-agnostic and has been tested on other military aircraft, including the MQ-20 Avenger and the BQM-177 target drone. - The partnership places Anduril and Shield AI in direct competition with the other team selected for the first increment of the CCA program: General Atomics, whose YFQ-42A drone will use autonomy software from RTX's Collins Aerospace. - The Fury drone is a Group 5 uncrewed aerial vehicle, approximately 20 feet long with a 17-foot wingspan, and is designed to fly at speeds up to Mach 0.95. - Shield AI's selection for the CCA program follows significant venture capital investment, with the company raising over $1.17 billion to date to develop its AI pilot technology. - Anduril is investing in scaling production for the Fury aircraft at a new manufacturing facility near Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus, Ohio. - System-level testing of the integrated Hivemind software on the Fury aircraft is already underway, with flight demonstrations expected in the coming months.
