Jam‑resistant drone deployed

The Royal Netherlands Navy said on March 30 that Shield AI’s V-BAT drone is now operational after shipboard testing off northern Norway, giving a North Atlantic Treaty Organization navy a small aircraft built to keep flying when radio links are jammed. (shield.ai) V-BAT lifts off and lands vertically like a helicopter, then flies forward like a plane, so it can launch from a ship deck, rooftop, or small clearing without a runway, catapult, or recovery net. (interestingengineering.com) Shield AI said the Netherlands is acquiring 12 V-BATs and fitting eight Royal Netherlands Navy vessels to support them, including the HNLMS Johan de Witt amphibious ship used in the operational tests. (shield.ai) The basic military problem is electronic warfare: a jammer floods the airwaves with noise, like shouting over a radio conversation, and many drones lose navigation or control when Global Navigation Satellite System signals or communications links disappear. Shield AI says V-BAT was designed for those “Global Navigation Satellite System and communications denied environments.” (shield.ai) Shield AI’s Hivemind software is the piece meant to cover that gap. The company says Hivemind can sense, decide, and act on board the aircraft, reroute around threats, and keep executing a mission without continuous human input. (shield.ai) That is the shift in this deployment: instead of treating a drone as a remote-controlled camera, navies are fielding aircraft that can keep working with broken or intermittent links and pass back video or data when the connection returns. The Netherlands test flights included real-time video feeds to the Johan de Witt for maritime surveillance and route planning. (shield.ai) The maritime angle is central. Shield AI says the latest V-BAT uses a heavy-fuel engine compatible with JP-5, the fuel commonly used on warships, and can stay aloft for more than 13 hours. (shield.ai) The company has been marketing V-BAT as a lower-cost alternative to larger surveillance drones. In an April 7, 2025 release, Shield AI said the upgraded aircraft aims to deliver some Group 4 and Group 5 capabilities in a Group 3-sized system. (shield.ai) Shield AI has also tied the aircraft’s pitch to recent Army and Navy testing. In March 2025 at Project Convergence Capstone 5 in California, the company said V-BAT operated against active jammers with the 82nd Airborne Division. (shield.ai) Company claims about being the only drone in certain classes with this level of contested-environment experience come from Shield AI’s own releases, and the Dutch announcement does not disclose the exact autonomy settings, rules for target identification, or what decisions remain with human operators. What is public is narrower: the aircraft is now in Royal Netherlands Navy service, and it is being sold on the promise that a jammed network does not have to end the mission. (shield.ai)