USAF Taps Shield AI for Anduril's Autonomous Fighter Jet Brain
The U.S. Air Force has selected Shield AI to provide the autonomy software for the Anduril Fury, an uncrewed fighter aircraft. The decision highlights a modular approach in defense, where advanced airframes are paired with independent, upgradable AI software systems to accelerate development and capability.
- This selection is part of the Technology Maturity and Risk Reduction (TMRR) phase of the Air Force's broader Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, which aims to produce at least 1,000 uncrewed wingmen to augment its fleet of piloted fighters. - The Air Force intentionally separated the competitions for the aircraft and its autonomous "brain," creating a competitive software-defined ecosystem. In a parallel award, defense giant RTX's Collins Aerospace was selected to provide the autonomy for General Atomics' competing YFQ-42A aircraft. - Shield AI's core product, Hivemind, is an AI pilot designed to handle more than pre-planned routes; it can dynamically reroute, engage obstacles, and operate in GPS- or communication-denied environments without direct human control. - The Anduril Fury (designated YFQ-44A) is a high-performance jet capable of flying at Mach 0.95, reaching a service ceiling of 50,000 feet, and executing 9-g maneuvers. It is powered by a commercial off-the-shelf Williams FJ44-4M turbofan engine. - To accelerate development, Anduril acquired the Fury's original designer, Blue Force Technologies, in September 2023. This allowed Anduril to bypass early design hurdles and immediately focus on evolving the platform into a multi-mission combat drone. - Before this selection, Shield AI's Hivemind had already been tested on multiple other aircraft, including the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie and modified F-16s, demonstrating its platform-agnostic software architecture. - The USAF is concurrently running Project VENOM (Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model), which uses a fleet of six modified F-16s as flying testbeds to rapidly iterate on autonomous software from various vendors. - The overarching strategy behind the CCA program is to achieve "affordable mass," creating a new class of less expensive, uncrewed aircraft that commanders can deploy with greater risk tolerance compared to multi-million dollar crewed fighters.
