Air Force Awards Contract for Autonomous Aircraft Software

Shield AI, a defense technology company building autonomous solutions and next-generation aircraft, has been awarded a production contract by the U.S. Air Force to implement Hivemind mission autonomy software for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.

The production award reflects the Air Force's software-first approach to autonomy and its decision to evaluate mission autonomy as a standalone capability within the CCA program. Enabled by the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA), the Air Force can iterate mission autonomy software upgrades independent of the aircraft, aiming to accelerate innovation while reducing integration costs and program risk.

"The Air Force's approach enables faster innovation, rapid capability deployment, and greater operational advantage for the warfighter," said Christian Gutierrez, senior vice president of Hivemind at Shield AI. "We're excited to continue our partnership with the Air Force to field collaborative autonomy and deliver these capabilities at scale."

By separating mission autonomy from the aircraft itself, the Air Force can integrate and upgrade software across multiple platforms without redesigning the airframe. This approach is intended to preserve competition, reduce integration risk, and enable Hivemind to be integrated across the Air Force's CCA ecosystem rather than being tied to a single aircraft platform.

Under the award, Shield AI will focus on implementing collaborative combat autonomy behaviors involving multiple autonomous aircraft operating together under human supervision, aiming to reduce operator workload and enable coordinated operations at scale.

Independent of this contract award, Shield AI will continue meeting commitments for the Air Force's mission autonomy development efforts. Earlier this year, Shield AI was selected as a mission autonomy provider for the Air Force's CCA program following a competitive evaluation supporting Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) efforts. Hivemind is currently flying aboard Anduril's YFQ-44A aircraft as part of those ongoing development efforts.

Hivemind is Shield AI's platform-agnostic, A-GRA compliant software that assumes the role of a human pilot or operator, enabling unmanned systems to sense, decide, and act.