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Shield AI and GE Aerospace light off X-BAT's engine with its thrust-vectoring nozzle, a key step toward vertical flight
Shield AI and GE Aerospace fitted a thrust-vectoring nozzle to the GE F110 engine that will power X-BAT and ran it at GE's Peebles, Ohio test site. Swiveling the exhaust lets the jet control its attitude while hovering, which is what will let X-BAT take off and land vertically without a runway. Flight tests of the prototype were planned for later in 2026.
- The nozzle (AVEN) was flown on an F-16 test jet in the 1990s: 135 flight hours over 95 flights, then refurbished for X-BAT.
- The engine is an F110-GE-129E, the same family that powers many F-15s and F-16s.
- X-BAT is an AI-piloted combat jet run by Shield AI's Hivemind software, with a claimed 1,000 nautical mile combat radius.
- Internal bays carry weapons up to the 2,000-lb class, comparable to the F-35, and it generates 80 kW of electrical power.
- Ground tests continue; the vertical-flight capability is still unproven in the air.