ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Nov. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shield AI and Destinus today announced a strategic partnership to integrate Hivemind, Shield AI's mission autonomy software, across Destinus' aerial platforms. Together, the companies are creating the first scalable, cross-platform autonomy architecture jointly developed by next-generation defense leaders in Europe and the United States. By combining Shield AI's battle-proven autonomy with Destinus' industrial-scale European manufacturing, this partnership accelerates the delivery of AI-enabled unmanned systems to Ukraine and strengthens Europe's overall defense resilience.
Through this partnership, Hivemind will be integrated onto Destinus' Ruta and Hornet unmanned aerial systems. Together with Shield AI's V-BAT, these platforms will share information, coordinate behaviors, and adapt in real time with in-flight target updates - creating a tightly integrated and highly effective reconnaissance-strike capability. Joint flight demonstrations are planned for 2026 to showcase operational interoperability across systems from both companies.
"Integrating Hivemind across diverse aircraft architectures like Ruta, Hornet, and V-BAT demonstrates how a unified autonomy framework can enable distributed mission execution," said Nathan Michael, Shield AI Chief Technology Officer and Head of the Hivemind Business Unit. "By allowing platforms to perceive, decide, and act together in real time, Hivemind delivers scalable autonomy that enhances coordination, survivability, and mission success across the battlespace."
"For Europe to achieve true technological sovereignty, we must unite world-class AI autonomy with industrial scale," said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Destinus. "This partnership strengthens that effort by pairing Destinus' platforms and AI avionics with Shield AI's combat-proven mission autonomy. With Destinus platforms, we are engineering the backbone of a distributed, intelligent, and resilient autonomous strike architecture for Europe and for Ukraine."
Hivemind is a highly modular, platform-agnostic autonomy software that enables heterogeneous teaming across systems, allowing reconnaissance and strike assets to operate as an intelligent team, thereby closing the reconnaissance-strike loop with speed and precision. Designed to ensure traceability, reliability and governability, Hivemind operates within clear command frameworks and augments human decision-makers, rather than replacing them.
Attendees of the Netherlands Defense and Security Exhibition (NEDS) can learn more about the partnership by visiting Booth F3.0, hosted jointly by Shield AI and Destinus.
About Shield AI
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Media contact: Lily Hinz; media@shield.ai
About Destinus
Destinus is a European defense industrial company developing and manufacturing a new generation of AI-enabled autonomous systems and one-way effectors for national and allied defense. The company employs over 700 engineers and specialists, operating advanced production and integration facilities across Europe to deliver its systems on an industrial scale. Its platforms, including the Hornet interceptor, the Lord long-range effector, and the Ruta next-generation cruise missile, combine AI autonomy, modular design, and European manufacturing excellence to provide intelligent and sovereign defense capabilities. Destinus is headquartered in the Netherlands and builds the technologies that will define Europe's next era of defense autonomy.
Media contact: press@destinus.eu
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