Air Force picks Shield AI to provide the software brains for the Ohio-built Anduril Fury autonomous aircraft
AI Analysis
The U.S. Air Force has selected Shield AI to provide autonomy software for the Anduril Fury autonomous aircraft, part of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program. This initiative aims to integrate semi-autonomous capabilities into uncrewed aircraft to assist piloted missions.
Key Takeaways
- Shield AI's Hivemind software is integrated into Anduril's Fury aircraft.
- The Air Force is conducting semi-autonomous flight testing with multiple vendors.
- The program promotes a competitive ecosystem for rapid deployment of algorithms.
- Anduril's Arsenal-1 facility in Ohio will be a major production site for the Fury aircraft.
- The Collaborative Combat Aircraft program seeks to enhance air combat with autonomous systems.
Why It Matters
This development signifies a strategic push by the U.S. Air Force to incorporate advanced autonomy in air combat, potentially transforming operational tactics and increasing the effectiveness of air missions. The use of multiple vendors and decoupling software from hardware fosters innovation and flexibility in defense technology integration.
Air Force picks Shield AI to provide the software brains for the Ohio-built Anduril Fury autonomous aircraft
The Air Force has picked the provider of autonomy software for an uncrewed fighter to be built near Columbus.
The Air Force said two vendors, RTX Collins and Shield AI, have started semi-autonomous flight testing in partnership with General Atomics on that company’s YFQ-42 platform, and with Ohio’s Anduril on its YFQ-44.
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It’s the latter craft that is to be built at Anduril’s Arsenal-1 manufacturing complex near Rickenbacker Airport in Pickaway County.
Under the program, Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software has been integrated on Anduril’s Fury aircraft and is supporting system-level testing before flight demonstrations expected in coming months, Shield AI said.
“Shield AI is proud to be named a mission autonomy provider supporting the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program,” Gary Steele, chief executive of Shield AI, said in a recent release. “The Air Force is moving with urgency to explore how autonomy can reshape air combat, and we have spent years preparing for this — building, testing, and flying mission autonomy in the real world. We will work relentlessly to deliver and to help advance the next era of airpower alongside the Air Force and its industry partners.”
Using multiple vendors for different airframes, the Air Force said it is “demonstrating that mission software can be decoupled from specific vehicle hardware, breaking down barriers for technology integration and fostering a more competitive and innovative ecosystem.”
“It proves that we are not locked into a single solution or a single vendor,” Col. Timothy Helfrich, portfolio acquisition executive for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, said in an Air Force release.
“We are instead building a competitive ecosystem where the best algorithms can be deployed rapidly to the warfighter on any A-GRA (Autonomy Government Reference Architecture)-compliant platform, regardless of the vendor providing the algorithm,” Helfrich said.
The Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program is its ongoing effort to develop autonomous or semi-autonomous uncrewed aircraft to fly with and assist piloted aircraft.
In an interview last month, [an Anduril executive said the company has about 50 workers at work at Arsenal-1.]
The company’s ultimate vision for that site: Some 4,000 employees, hired over the next eight to ten years, in a manufacturing complex covering some 5 million square feet.
Arsenal-1’s earliest building will encompass 775,000 square feet of production space and 120,000 additional square feet of office and support space, the company said.
While proximity to Wright-Patterson was not a decisive factor in the Ohio location decision, it did not hurt, Anduril Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Matt Grimm told journalists last month.
“I would say that it was nice to have and a benefit” Grimm said of Wright-Patterson’s