The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded the Shield AI a $198 million contract to provide Contractor Owned Contractor Operated (COCO) Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) services.
This service will be implemented using the V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, Co-founder, and former Navy SEAL, said; “We’re excited to support the U.S. Coast Guard with their ISR operations. All maritime vessels will become drone carriers as maritime forces move to deploy distributed, affordable, intelligent drones. V-BAT’s selection by the U.S. Coast Guard is indicative of a broader market movement where increasingly customers are recognizing they can accomplish the vast majority of their mission sets with affordable drones rather than exquisite, expensive crewed or uncrewed aircraft.”
The V-BAT series aircraft is the only operationally deployed single-engine ducted fan vertical takeoff and land (VTOL) UAS that can launch and recover from a hover and fly on wing in horizontal flight.
With more than five years of persistent operational experience at sea, U.S. and international customers view the V-BAT as a flexible platform capable of performing Group 2 to Group 5 UAS missions and beyond.
