[October 28, 2026]
Leonardo selects Shield to further its rotary-wing autonomy development
LONDON (October 29, 2026) — Shield today announced an agreement with Leonardo under which Leonardo will use Shield’s Hivemind software to further develop autonomy capabilities for integration onto Proteus, Leonardo’s autonomous uncrewed rotorcraft. The agreement expands Leonardo’s tools to build its own mission autonomy software for new and existing systems.
Using the Hivemind Software Development Kit (SDK), the two companies will work together to integrate the software so Leonardo engineers can develop new autonomy capabilities for rotary-wing operations, including anti-submarine warfare (ASW), intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and contested logistics helicopter operations.
“Leonardo builds some of the most widely flown rotorcraft in the world, and Hivemind gives its engineers new tools to add autonomy to them,” said Tom Schaefer, vice president of Hivemind engineering at Shield. “Autonomy software is never finished. It changes with the mission, the threat, and the sensors on the aircraft. Leonardo’s engineers can therefore tailor Hivemind software to their mission sets, and the work stays with them.”
“As we look to the demands of our customers and the reality of military and security operations in both wartime and in peacetime, there is a need for autonomy powered by AI. The ability to develop and integrate mission autonomy using Hivemind onto Proteus will support the implementation of autonomous capabilities,” said Adam Wardrope, Vice President Market Development Helicopters UK, Leonardo. “When combined with our long-standing design, development, and manufacturing expertise in crewed and uncrewed rotorcraft, we believe we will be able to benefit from Shield’s software to support the development and delivery of autonomous solutions, potentially also extending it through other programmes within our rotary-wing portfolio.”
Using Hivemind, partners can develop, integrate, test, deploy, and continuously update their own autonomous pilots. They build mission autonomy tailored to their platforms and missions, then refine it as operations, environments, and threats evolve. Partners own what they build and can sustain and adapt those capabilities independently, lowering lifecycle cost through reuse and rapid iteration.
Proteus is an advanced uncrewed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) Technology Demonstrator developed by Leonardo in conjunction with the Royal Navy and UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) under the Rotary Wing Uncrewed Air System (RWUAS) CCD Phase 3B Technology Demonstrator Programme. Proteus informs the Royal Navy’s Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATx) strategy, which outlines the evolution of maritime aviation until 2040. Proteus is designed with a large modular payload bay to accommodate a circa one-tonne payload or two standard NATO pallets (463L). This flexibility allows the operator to integrate customer and mission-specific payloads for various operations, such as anti-submarine warfare, airborne early warning or intra-theatre lift. Following demonstrations in all-synthetic operational scenarios, a real aircraft successfully carried out its maiden flight in early 2026, with Leonardo-designed autonomy capability embedded. Shield’s Hivemind will sustain a further development of those capabilities.
This agreement provides a pathway for greater future collaboration, drawing on Shield’s significant expertise in autonomy powered by Hivemind software and the large product and service portfolio of Leonardo.
About Shield:
Founded in 2015, Shield is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
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About Leonardo:
Leonardo is an international industrial group that develops multi-domain technological capabilities for global security. A key player in the major strategic programmes in Aerospace, Defence and Security, it employs over 62,000 people worldwide and operates in the Electronics, Helicopters, Aircraft, Cyber & Security and Space sectors. The company has a significant industrial presence in Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland and the United States, and is active in 150 countries also through subsidiaries, joint ventures and investees. Leonardo is a technological and industrial partner to Governments, Defence Administrations, Institutions and businesses. Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange (LDO), in 2025 Leonardo recorded new orders of €23.8 billion, an order backlog of €46.6 billion and consolidated revenues of €19.5 billion. Included in the MIB ESG Index, the company has also been part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) since 2010.
