{"id":12322,"date":"2026-06-17T12:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/12322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:38:26","slug":"poland-weighs-joining-x-bat-autonomous-vertical-takeoff-fighter-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/12322\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland weighs joining X-BAT autonomous vertical-takeoff fighter program"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARSAW, Poland \u2014 California-based defense technology firm Shield AI has offered Poland a role in its X-BAT<\/a> autonomous vertical-takeoff fighter jet program, with the country potentially hosting some of the manufacturing activities for the aircraft, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir intention is to also cooperate with Poland, and to produce in Poland, for the X-BAT program, the first autonomous combat aircraft in the world,\u201d Tusk said at a June 16 press conference in Warsaw. \u201cIt\u2019s top-tier technology, a chance for air domination in case of an armed conflict, and an incredibly ambitious project with regard to technology and innovativeness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shield AI unveiled the X-BAT in October 2025, promoting its artificial intelligence-driven unmanned fighter capable of vertical takeoffs and landings as a platform suitable for expeditionary and maritime operations in contested environments. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the core of X-BAT is Shield AI\u2019s Hivemind, AI-enabled autonomy software designed to fly platforms in communications-denied, degraded, and limited environments,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cHivemind enables X-BAT to autonomously penetrate contested battlespace, dynamically team with manned aircraft, and execute collaborative tactics without constant communications. This autonomy allows X-BAT to function as a drone wingman or as a standalone asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest announcement comes as the Polish government is mulling plans to acquire up to 32 new fighter jets<\/a>, with some of the evaluated options including: Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35<\/a>; the Eurofighter Typhoon, a jet produced by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo; and Boeing\u2019s F-15EX.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Warsaw is also considering to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP)<\/a> and involve the country\u2019s defense sector in the project to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet. The Polish government is evaluating whether engaging its state-dominated defense industry in the tri-nation initiative, which is spearheaded by Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, could boost the sector\u2019s capacities and innovativeness, according to Polish Deputy State Assets Minister Konrad Go\u0142ota.<\/p>\n

Set up in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense tech company. In addition to X-BAT and Hivemind, its other products include the V-BAT drone.<\/p>\n

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARSAW, Poland \u2014 California-based defense technology firm Shield AI has offered Poland a role in its X-BAT autonomous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8220,436,437,430,8994,8996,8995,9,8992,1425,8993],"class_list":["post-12322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-circulated-c4isrnet","tag-circulated-defense-news","tag-defense-news","tag-dn-dnr","tag-eurosatory","tag-hivemind","tag-loyal-wingman","tag-poland","tag-shield-ai","tag-unmanned","tag-x-bat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}