On Oct. 26, two uncrewed jets took off over the Nevada Test and Training Range and maneuvered against a threat that existed only in software, with no human pilot anywhere in the sky. The only person giving orders was an operator on the ground, who passed high-level direction to the pair while an AI pilot flew the airplanes. It was the first time Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the Air Force’s drone wingmen, had done that kind of work without a crewed aircraft overhead.
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Shield AI, the company that builds the autonomy software, disclosed the flight on Nov. 9. Anduril Industries built the aircraft.
Two Anduril jets, one AI pilot, one ground operator
According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, the aircraft were a pair of Anduril-built FQ-44A Fury jets, a design that carried the prototype designation YFQ-44A in earlier Air Force reporting. They flew in formation and carried out beyond-visual-range air combat maneuvers directed by Hivemind, Shield AI’s mission autonomy software, which the magazine calls an AI pilot. The ground operator, who is not named in any source, gave the pair high-level directions as they engaged a virtual threat.
Todd Wesley, Shield AI’s vice president of Hivemind engineering, told the magazine the difference from the earlier test was that this was a full-on tactical air-to-air engagement. He called the flight a kind of graduation exercise beyond what happened in early October.
Shield AI’s own announcement frames the same two flights as a coordinated-team milestone, saying Hivemind enabled multiple Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft to fly in formation and execute tactical beyond-visual-range maneuvers together. Wesley says in that release that the autonomy translates human intent into collaborative actions, and that each flight feeds data into the next software release. The release also says Air Force operators, engineers and test teams flew with the company.
The Oct. 8 F-22 test that came first
The Oct. 26 flight followed a different arrangement about three weeks earlier. Air & Space Forces Magazine’s account of the F-22 test says an F-22 Raptor pilot, acting as an airborne quarterback, sent a mission plan over a tactical data link to a YFQ-44A Fury that took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and the Fury’s onboard software carried out the orders. Anduril put the flight at multiple hours. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said that demonstration showed the power of crewed-uncrewed teaming. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said it showed what is possible when the service is aligned with industry on a shared imperative.
The magazine describes the Oct. 26 flight as a step past that: no crewed jet in formation, and a scenario built around an engagement rather than following orders. Wesley described the October test as a stepping stone to this capability.
A virtual threat and no live munitions
The wording matters. The engagement was against a virtual threat, and the Shield AI executive told the magazine that flights with Collaborative Combat Aircraft carrying and employing live munitions will come later, though he could not say when. So the jets did not shoot at anything, and the Air Force has not issued a statement of its own on the Oct. 26 flight in the sources reviewed.
Hivemind is one of two autonomy suites the service paired with competing airframes this year. Air & Space Forces Magazine’s report from the Warfare Symposium says Col. Timothy Helfrich, the portfolio acquisition executive for fighters and advanced aircraft, confirmed Hivemind’s first flight on the YFQ-44A on Feb. 25, and that Collins Aerospace’s Sidekick software was paired with General Atomics. Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, who commands the Experimental Operations Unit, described the AI pilot as essentially the pilot in the seat.
Shield AI’s release adds that the work runs on the Air Force’s Autonomy Government Reference Architecture, which separates mission autonomy from aircraft-specific functions. That separation is what lets one company’s AI pilot move between airframes, and the magazine’s spotlight piece says Hivemind has also flown on Kratos aircraft and a variant of Airbus’s UH-72 Lakota helicopter. Anduril, for its part, flew its YFQ-44A on both its own Lattice software and Hivemind in a single flight.
The ratio question for crewed fighters
The unresolved piece is how many of these aircraft a single human can supervise. Air Force leaders have floated two to five drones per crewed jet, and the force-design director, Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, said in a January 2025 interview on ratios and autonomy that the exact number is classified and bigger than the service first thought. Kunkel also said the service wants simple autonomy with a human in the loop rather than fully autonomous drones.
The Oct. 26 flight put the human on the ground rather than in a cockpit, and Wesley said Shield AI will keep expanding the complexity of the engagements its pilots direct. Air Force leaders have said they want at least 100 of these aircraft in the fleet by 2029, so the testing cadence of roughly one milestone every three weeks this autumn matters to that schedule. The next test the sources point to is the one with live munitions, which has no date.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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