Deployment

Shield AI V-BAT at USA

Group 3 VTOL fixed-wing ISR/targeting drone (designated MQ-35) that takes off and lands vertically from a small footprint, powered by the Hivemind autonomy stack and resilient in GPS- and communications-denied environments. Fielded in Ukraine and selected by the US Coast Guard. (V-BAT Teams is a multi-aircraft capability, not a separate model.)

Shield AI V-BAT by Shield AI · Unverified · Drones

Track Shield AI V-BAT at USA

Recent coverage

Shield AI and Taiwan's NCSIST complete autonomous swarm exercise and expand sovereign AI and Autonomy effortsshield.ai · 2026-08-05
L3Harris and Shield AI complete autonomous electronic warfare flight testshield.ai · 2026-07-16
New Pentagon unmanned czar will oversee most drone programsBen Smith, Deploy Editor · 2026-07-01

See all coverage →

Shield AI V-BAT contributed to over $1B in drug seizures with US Coast Guard during 2025.

Exposure

Customer segment: defense
Scale tier: fleet 1000 plus
Customer: US Coast Guard

Each exposure value carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Safety record

No incidents on record for Shield AI V-BAT at USA.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Trust tier: Unverifiedhow tiers work →
Last updated: 2026-08-27
Model: Shield AI V-BAT
Company: Shield AI
Location: United States/USA
Status: operational
Operator type: maker operated
First seen: 2025-01-01
ID: 6d8d251e-df79-43ac-a59a-b26538da981a

Timeline

Jan 2025
First recorded
Shield AI V-BAT first documented operating at USA.
Aug 2026
Current status: operational
Latest recorded state. New status transitions append here as the deployment-status recorder produces them.

On the deployment map

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

Shield AI V-BAT operates in USA. Explore the full verified map:

Sources (1)

https://tech-insider.org/shield-ai-2-billion-series-g-defense-ai-autonomous-warfare-2026/

Methodology: Unreviewed · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-27

Verification posture

Unreviewed

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: production

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: aerial

Sources by quality tier

1: unclassified; Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Common questions

What is the Shield AI V-BAT deployment at USA?

Shield AI V-BAT, built by Shield AI, is recorded as a deployment at USA on the DEPLOY registry. Shield AI operates the deployment directly.

Who operates Shield AI V-BAT at USA?

Shield AI, the manufacturer of Shield AI V-BAT, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.

When did the Shield AI V-BAT deployment at USA go live?

The deployment is recorded as starting January 1, 2025 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.

Have there been incidents at the Shield AI V-BAT deployment at USA?

No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

Deploy Watch

Track this deployment.

We notify you when status changes against primary-source evidence, contract events surface, or a related incident is filed.

Machine-readable surfaces

Markdown mirror: /deployments/shield-ai-1b-drug-seizures-2025.md
JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
REST API: /v1/robots/6d8d251e-df79-43ac-a59a-b26538da981a
Data documentation: /data
Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP