Poland buys V-BAT surveillance drones in $16 million Shield AI deal

Poland has signed a contract worth approximately $16 million to purchase American-made V-BAT vertical takeoff and landing drones for its Navy, with the deal set to be completed before the end of 2026, Defence24 reported.

The agreement, confirmed by Poland’s Armament Agency, covers one full system set and several aerial platforms, making Poland one of the first European NATO allies to field the V-BAT in a dedicated naval role.

The V-BAT is built by Shield AI, a San Diego-based defense technology company founded in 2015 and best known for developing artificial intelligence software for autonomous military platforms. The drone itself is a compact, ducted-fan vertical takeoff and landing system classified by NATO as a Class I unmanned aerial vehicle, meaning it falls below 150 kg (331 lb) in operating weight. Despite that relatively modest size, Shield AI says the V-BAT can perform missions that previously required much heavier drones: NATO Class II systems weighing between 150 and 600 kg (331 to 1,323 lb), and even Class III platforms exceeding 600 kg (1,323 lb). The gap between those capability tiers and the V-BAT’s physical footprint is what makes the system attractive for shipboard operations, where deck space and hangar volume are hard constraints that no amount of mission need can override.

The aircraft weighs 73 kg (161 lb) fully loaded, carries a payload of just over 18 kg (40 lb), and spans 3.8 m (12.5 ft) across its wings. A single heavy-fuel engine powers it through flights lasting more than 12 hours, a figure that puts it well ahead of battery-electric competitors in the same weight class. The ducted-fan propulsion design, with the rotor enclosed in a protective shroud, allows the V-BAT to launch and recover from ship decks, rooftops, and unprepared terrain without ground handling equipment or launch rails. For a navy operating in confined coastal waters or alongside surface combatants with limited deck space, that matters considerably.

Poland’s Armament Agency confirmed that the V-BAT platforms will operate from Polish Navy vessels and conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions in the maritime environment. The Baltic Sea, which forms the northern boundary of Polish territory and serves as the primary operating area for the Polish Navy, has seen a significant increase in hybrid security threats in recent years, including suspected sabotage of undersea energy cables and telecommunications infrastructure linking NATO member states. The pattern of incidents has pushed Baltic NATO members to accelerate investment in persistent maritime surveillance capabilities that can respond quickly and remain airborne for extended periods without the logistics burden of a manned aircraft.

Ryan Tseng, president, co-founder, and chief strategy officer of Shield AI, pointed directly to that security environment when commenting on the contract. “Operations on the Baltic Sea, where threats to the security of critical energy and communications infrastructure are becoming increasingly frequent, require reliable platforms with sensors and systems capable of operating in all weather conditions and sea states,” Tseng said, as reported by Defence24.

Tseng also noted that the V-BAT has already proven itself under contested electronic conditions, citing its operational record in Ukraine and other theaters where GPS jamming and datalink interference have degraded or disabled less resilient drone systems. Russia has deployed some of the world’s most sophisticated electronic warfare equipment along the eastern front, and Ukraine has served as a proving ground for unmanned systems that can maintain autonomous operation when satellite navigation and radio communications are actively disrupted. The V-BAT’s performance in that environment carries direct relevance to the Baltic, where Russian electronic warfare assets positioned in the Kaliningrad enclave, a Russian exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast, can reach across a significant portion of the sea.

The drone runs Shield AI’s Hivemind software, an AI-driven autonomy stack that the company has integrated across multiple platforms. Hivemind is also at the center of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which is developing AI-piloted unmanned wingmen designed to operate alongside crewed fighters including the F-35. Shield AI is separately developing the X-BAT, a jet-powered drone that also uses Hivemind, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently indicated that Poland has been offered industrial cooperation in that program, a detail that adds a longer-term dimension to what might otherwise appear to be a straightforward equipment purchase.

Poland has been one of the most aggressive spenders on defense modernization within NATO since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, committing to defense budgets exceeding four percent of GDP and signing procurement contracts across land, air, and naval domains.