ShieldAI AI Pilot Flies XQ-58 Valkyrie Jet Drone

By Brian Wang

Shield AI, building the world’s best AI pilot, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS), making a high-performance, jet-powered unmanned aerial systems (UAS aka drone), completion of the first phase of Shield’s AI-piloted flight-testing on-board Kratos platforms as the two companies move toward productizing Shield AI’s pilot for the XQ-58 Valkyrie.

Having successfully flown AI pilots on five aircraft — three classes of quadcopters, the MQ-35A V-BAT, and the F-16 in fully autonomous air combat training — Shield AI’s Hivemind AI pilot has now successfully flown on and controlled the Kratos MQM-178 Firejet. These successful flights are a major milestone in the comprehensive integration project as Shield AI and Kratos look to ultimately productize another configuration of the Valkyrie, in this case with Shield AI’s Hivemind AI pilot.

There was also successful integration of Shield AI’s Hivemind AI Pilot on Parry Labs’ Edge Compute Micro (EC Micro). This integration was showcased in a flight where the AI, using only onboard computing, autonomously piloted a Kratos MQM-178 Firejet through several complex maneuvers. This integration with Parry Labs’ EC Micro enhances the ability to rapidly deploy the AI Pilot across various platforms, more efficiently than working with multiple individual companies.

The EC Micro provides an on-platform operating environment combining high density CPU and advanced GPU processing resources for the orchestration of autonomy, navigation, intelligent networking, and AI/ML applications. EC Micro’s small form factor and modularity enables expanded mission capacity and enhanced command and control across a wide range of air and ground platforms.