Shield AI Wins US Air Force Autonomy Contract
Shield AI, a deep-tech company specializing in autonomy software, announced it was selected as a mission autonomy provider for the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. The company's Hivemind software will be used aboard Anduril's Fury aircraft.
- The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program is a U.S. Air Force initiative to develop autonomous, uncrewed aircraft to fly alongside manned fighter jets. The Air Force plans to acquire at least 1,000 of these "loyal wingman" drones. - For the first phase of the CCA program, the Air Force awarded contracts to Anduril and General Atomics to build production-representative test articles. Anduril's entry is the YFQ-44A Fury, while General Atomics is developing the YFQ-42A. - Shield AI's Hivemind is an AI-powered autonomy software platform designed for intelligent machines. It enables aircraft to operate in environments where GPS and communications are unavailable and uses reinforcement learning to develop and execute tactics. - The Air Force is using a government-owned Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA) to ensure that mission software can be decoupled from the specific aircraft hardware. This approach is intended to prevent being locked into a single vendor and allows for a competitive ecosystem of algorithm developers. - Anduril's Fury aircraft, the platform for Shield AI's Hivemind in this contract, was originally developed by Blue Force Technologies, which Anduril acquired in 2023. The YFQ-44A Fury prototype made its first flight in October 2025. - The CCA program is part of the Air Force's larger Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative, which also includes a future crewed fighter to replace the F-22. The total planned spending for the NGAD program, including the CCA, is projected to be $28.48 billion between fiscal years 2025-2029. - Other major defense companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, were initially selected for early design work on the CCA program and are expected to compete for future increments. The Air Force plans to award contracts for the second increment of the CCA program in early fiscal year 2026. - The U.S. Navy is pursuing a similar program to develop carrier-capable autonomous aircraft, and Anduril intends to leverage components and design principles from the Air Force's Fury for the Navy's requirements.
