Shield AI and GE Aerospace have completed a critical propulsion test for the X-BAT, marking a significant step toward the world’s first AI-piloted vertical takeoff and landing fighter jet. The companies successfully integrated, actuated, and lit off the Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN) on a GE F110-GE-129E engine, clearing a key technical hurdle for vertical flight later this year.
The tests took place at GE Aerospace’s facility in Peebles, Ohio. Engineers modified and installed the refurbished AVEN nozzle onto the engine, then conducted functional checkouts followed by engine light-off to verify that the complete propulsion system performed as designed. Officials described the effort as the first fully integrated test of the nozzle, controls, and engine systems since the 1990s.
“X-BAT is designed to take off and land vertically from anywhere—no airbase, no runway—and that capability lives or dies with propulsion,” said Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft engineering at Shield AI. “The AVEN is what makes vertical flight possible on a platform this size and this capable. We’re applying it differently than it was ever used before. Vertical flight requires fast gimbaling to maintain attitude control, a demand the original program never had to meet. Taking hardware with a flight-proven track record and adapting it for that mission has let us move through development at an incredible pace instead of starting from zero.”
The AVEN is a three-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzle originally developed in the 1990s for experimental multi-axis thrust vectoring work on F-16 fighters. In that earlier program it accumulated 73 hours of ground testing and 135 flight hours across 95 flights. For X-BAT the hardware was refurbished and adapted to the more demanding requirements of sustained vertical flight and precise attitude control. After additional ground testing, the nozzle will be installed on the X-BAT prototype ahead of flight trials planned for later in 2026.
Doogie Russell, vice president of Edison Works at GE Aerospace, called the successful light-off a full-circle moment. “By combining our proven experience in developing propulsion systems with Shield AI’s next-generation vehicle development, we are integrating the best of past, present, and future products to create a revolutionary aircraft.” The F110 engine family itself has logged more than 11 million flight hours and recently marked 40 years of continuous production and upgrades.
X-BAT was publicly unveiled by Shield AI in October 2025 as an uncrewed, AI-piloted strike aircraft built for contested environments. Measuring roughly 26 feet in length with a 39-foot wingspan, the aircraft is designed so that three can fit into the deck or storage footprint of a single conventional fighter, supporting higher operational tempo from constrained spaces. It features a stealthy cranked-arrow wing configuration, internal weapon bays sized comparably to those on the F-35 and capable of carrying 2,000-pound-class munitions in each bay, plus external hardpoints for larger strike weapons when stealth is less critical. The aircraft generates 80 kilowatts of electrical power, enough to support electronic warfare suites, active and passive sensors, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance payloads.
Performance targets include a maximum range exceeding 2,000 nautical miles with full mission payload, a combat radius of approximately 1,000 nautical miles, a service ceiling above 50,000 feet, and a maneuver load factor greater than 4G. The jet is powered by the GE F110 engine paired with the vectoring nozzle, enabling vertical takeoff, transition to conventional horizontal flight for the mission, and vertical recovery. Officials have described the concept as allowing operations from ships, remote islands, roads, or austere forward bases with minimal infrastructure.
Autonomy comes from Shield AI’s Hivemind software, which has been combat-proven since 2019 across more than 30 platforms. Hivemind enables the aircraft to operate independently or in collaborative teams with crewed fighters, execute missions at machine speed, and function effectively even when GPS, communications, or other signals are jammed or denied. One operator can command multiple X-BATs, and the system is designed for open architecture integration with U.S. Navy and Air Force operations.
The strategic rationale for a runway-independent fighter is rooted in the growing vulnerability of fixed air bases. In potential high-end conflicts, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, precision missiles can crater runways and taxiways, grounding conventional aircraft for days or longer. Analyses of Chinese missile capabilities have highlighted the risk that forward bases in Japan, Guam, and elsewhere could be closed to fighter operations for significant periods at the outset of a conflict, while tanker operations needed for long-range missions could be disrupted even more severely. An aircraft that can launch and recover from almost any suitable surface reduces dependence on those fixed, targetable facilities and supports more distributed, resilient operations.
X-BAT is positioned as a Group 5 collaborative combat aircraft that combines vertical takeoff and landing with long range and meaningful combat payload—capabilities that have traditionally been difficult to reconcile on a single platform. While smaller collaborative combat aircraft concepts focus primarily on cost and mass, X-BAT aims to deliver fighter-like reach and firepower without requiring the extensive base infrastructure that makes traditional airpower vulnerable. Company timelines target first flight in 2026, mission capability demonstrations by 2028, and production beginning around 2029. In the roughly 18 months leading up to the recent engine test, the program advanced through wind-tunnel work, pole testing, engine testing, and structural pathfinder fabrication.
The successful AVEN integration does not mean the aircraft is ready for combat. Additional ground testing, installation on the prototype, flight envelope expansion, and full autonomy validation remain ahead. Yet the milestone demonstrates rapid progress on the propulsion challenge that has historically limited the combination of high performance and true vertical operations on a jet of this class. By adapting proven 1990s hardware rather than starting from a clean sheet, Shield AI and GE Aerospace compressed a critical development phase.
If the program continues on schedule, X-BAT could offer military planners a new option for generating combat power from distributed locations, whether from the deck of a ship, a remote island, or an austere site far from traditional air bases. In an era when fixed runways are increasingly at risk, an AI-piloted aircraft that treats the earth itself as its runway represents a meaningful shift in how airpower might be projected and sustained. The recent engine light-off brings that concept one concrete step closer to reality.
About The Author
