V-BAT
Country: 
United StatesManufacturer: Shield AI (ex Martin UAV)
Shield AI's V-BAT is a tactical tailsitter VTOL drone with a single ducted fan: 13 hours endurance, minimal 2.4×2.4 m footprint to operate from frigates, submarines and vehicles, piloted by Hivemind AI for GPS-denied and EW-denied missions.
Shield AI's V-BAT is a tactical tailsitter VTOL drone with a single ducted fan: 13 hours endurance, minimal 2.4×2.4 m footprint to operate from frigates, submarines and vehicles, piloted by Hivemind AI for GPS-denied and EW-denied missions.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- V-BAT
- Alias
- Shield AI V-BAT 128 (ex Martin UAV)
- Manufacturer
- Shield AI (ex Martin UAV)
- Country
- United States
- Year
- 2016
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Tactical (< 600 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 555 km
- Endurance
- 13 h (V-BAT 128)
- Top speed
- 167 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 6,100 m
- Propulsion
- Pistone heavy fuel con ducted fan singolo (tailsitter)
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 57 kg
- Payload
- 11 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO/IR Hood Tech Alticam, SAR/GMTI, SIGINT modulare
- Datalink / control
- LOS C-band + SATCOM opzionale, Hivemind AI autonomy
- Launch
- VTOL tailsitter — footprint 2,4 x 2,4 m
- Recovery
- Atterraggio verticale autonomo su nave o terreno irregolare
Combat use
- ▸Iraq, Syria (2019-) — SOCOM ISR ducted-fan VTOL
- ▸US Army FTUAS Increment 2 victory (2022)
- ▸Ukraine (2024-) — autonomous operations with Hivemind AI under EW jamming
- ▸US Coast Guard counter-narcotics program (2023-)
Tags
Main operators
History
Developed by Martin UAV (acquired by Shield AI in 2021), the V-BAT in 2022 won the US Army FTUAS Increment 2 program as the brigade-level replacement for the RQ-7 Shadow.
Since 2024 deployed in Ukraine where it has shown superior survivability in EW-saturated environments thanks to the Hivemind AI pilot, capable of completing missions without GPS or continuous datalink.
On the development side, the Shield AI V-BAT is a one-of-a-kind tailsitter VTOL drone: a single ducted fan at the center of the fuselage provides both vertical and horizontal thrust, eliminating exposed rotors and enabling operations from frigates, submarines and vehicles with a 2.4×2.4 m footprint.
On the autonomous EW-denied battlefield, the V-BAT is the reference platform for Shield AI's Hivemind AI: it won in 2022 the US Army FTUAS Increment 2 program as the RQ-7 Shadow replacement and in 2024 demonstrated in Ukraine GPS-free flight capabilities in EW environments saturated by Russian jammers.
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