CINCINNATI — GE Aerospace and Shield AI have successfully completed integration, actuation and engine light-off testing of the advanced Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN) for Shield AI’s X-BAT aircraft, a critical milestone in the program’s path to vertical flight.
Engineers from both companies modified and integrated the AVEN into GE Aerospace’s F110-GE-129E engine, then completed functional checkouts and engine light-off to verify system performance at GE Aerospace’s test operations site in Peebles, Ohio. This is the first fully integrated test campaign of its kind since the 1990s, bringing AVEN’s hardware, controls and engine systems together to execute coordinated nozzle movement sequences using defined test protocols.
The AVEN provides thrust vectoring capability for vertical flight, launch and landing. Originally designed for a multi-axis thrust vectoring program that flew on an F-16 in the 1990s, the nozzle accumulated 73 hours of ground testing and 135 flight hours across 95 flights during its original development program. As part of the X-BAT program, the hardware was refurbished and returned to operation. Following refurbishment, AVEN is now undergoing ground testing in preparation for flight test aboard the X-BAT prototype.
"X-BAT is designed to take off and land vertically from anywhere — no airbase, no runway — and that capability lives or dies with propulsion,” said Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft engineering at Shield AI. “The AVEN is what makes vertical flight possible on a platform this size and this capable. We’re applying it differently than it was ever used before. Vertical flight requires fast gimbaling to maintain attitude control, a demand the original program never had to meet. Taking hardware with a flight-proven track record and adapting it for that mission has let us move through development at an incredible pace instead of starting from zero."
According to Harris, the next step will be iterating Shield AI's propulsion approach to make future versions faster, lighter and more capable.
X-BAT is built to solve the operational problems facing today’s forces: contested airspace, vulnerable runways and the need for aircraft that can fly long distances while carrying a heavy weapons load. It’s a long-range, survivable, AI-piloted strike fighter that takes off and lands vertically, so it can operate from ships, islands, or remote sites without runways or support infrastructure. Powered by Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software, X-BAT can fly independently or as part of a force package alongside crewed aircraft.
X-BAT is sized to carry weapons up to the 2,000-pound class internally in each bay, with bays comparable in size to the F-35's. It generates 80 kilowatts of electrical power, enough to run electronic warfare suites—allowing it to act autonomously as a jammer—along with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads and active and passive radar modes. With a combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles, X-BAT begins flight testing later this year.
In November 2025, Shield AI selected GE Aerospace to provide the engine, propulsion and testing support for the X-BAT program. GE Aerospace’s F110 engine has more than 11 million flight hours, the most thrust in its class, and recently marked 40 years of continuous production and improvement.
