Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which Honeywell Aerospace will develop a trusted autonomy software stack.
The stack will use Shield AI’s Hivemind Software Development Kit and integrate Honeywell Aerospace’s Anthem™ avionics, navigation, and sensing portfolio.
This collaboration seeks to address a central challenge in mission autonomy: moving beyond whether software can fly an aircraft to ensuring that the aircraft can be certified and trusted to operate without direct human control. By creating a design-assured foundation, the initiative aims to help defense operators move from demonstration to deployment faster across a wider range of operational environments, without having to rebuild confidence in each new system.
Matt Milas, President, Defense & Space, Honeywell Aerospace, commented, “Autonomy software can fly an aircraft, but trust has to be engineered into the architecture, not bolted on after. Our role is to build the certified, design-assured foundation that lets a warfighter, a regulator and a fleet operator all trust the same platform. That’s the layer we bring to this collaboration, the one that turns intelligence like Hivemind into something that can be deployed safely and at scale anywhere in the world.”
Beyond defense applications, the two companies will explore the architecture required to bring trusted, AI-piloted autonomy to commercial aviation and other transportation applications. In parallel, Shield AI will evaluate the use of Honeywell Aerospace’s high-integrity, safety-critical products on its own uncrewed aircraft platforms.
Gary Steele, CEO, Shield AI, added, “Honeywell Aerospace’s certified avionics, navigation, and sensing systems paired with Hivemind, which delivers mission autonomy for intelligent, collaborative operations, create a trusted foundation for AI-piloted flight. This collaboration reflects how the aerospace and defense ecosystem is evolving, bringing the best of autonomy and certified hardware to address transportation and national security challenges.”
Under the collaboration, Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI will also evaluate joint pursuits of defense Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) programs globally. The companies will explore how Honeywell Aerospace’s certified systems could extend Hivemind’s reach into U.S. and international markets, supporting allied nations seeking domestic autonomy capability.
