Shield AI to Build X-BAT in Washington and Test It in Kansas

Shield AI announced on September 30, 2026 that it has named Newton, Kansas, as the flight test and sustainment home and Des Moines, Washington, as the production home for X-BAT, its AI-piloted fighter jet designed to take off and land vertically. The company said building and testing the aircraft in the two states is projected to support about 9,800 American jobs by the early 2030s and add roughly $78 billion to the Newton and Seattle economies through 2046.

The announcement designates X-Forge 2, at the Newton City-County Airport in Kansas, as the flight test and sustainment site, and X-Forge 3, in Des Moines just south of Seattle, as the production site. Together with X-Forge 1 in Frisco, Texas, the three sites carry X-BAT from prototype through delivery and through the life of the fleet.

Every X-BAT will complete production acceptance testing in Newton before delivery, and customers will conduct their own acceptance flights there. Newton will also support development flight testing and serve as the maintenance, repair and overhaul center for the fleet. Shield AI currently leases hangar and office space and approximately 10 acres at Newton City/County Airport and is working with the City of Newton and Harvey County to expand its footprint and develop a larger hangar. The company committed to Newton in 2025, when it first showed the X-BAT design to the public, and has been standing the site up since.

South-central Kansas has built aircraft since the 1920s, and its training pipeline runs through Wichita State University, WSU Tech, the National Center for Aviation Training and Hutchinson Community College.

Senator Jerry Moran said basing X-BAT maintenance, repair and overhaul and sustainment operations in Newton is good news for the state, pointing to Kansas’ long history in aviation and its aviation workforce and training institutions. Senator Roger Marshall said every U.S.-built X-BAT will fly in Kansas skies before delivery and that Kansas workers will help keep the fleet flying for decades. Congressman Ron Estes said the expansion means good-paying jobs for Kansans, and Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said every X-BAT will be tested in Kansas before delivery. Newton Mayor Rich Stinnett said the city’s role has expanded from the 2025 flight-test commitment to include ongoing maintenance, repair and overhaul for the entire X-BAT fleet.

In Des Moines, Shield AI has signed its lease and is building the site out now, and hiring for the program has shifted to the region and is underway. Des Moines is the company’s first Puget Sound site, and Shield AI said it expects its regional footprint to grow as production rates climb. King County has more than 45,000 aerospace workers at more than 400 companies, and Washington’s supplier base runs past 1,500 firms; the company said it evaluated several regions and chose Washington for that workforce.

“We welcome Shield AI and the thousands of good-paying jobs this investment will bring,” said Washington Governor Bob Ferguson. Congressman Adam Smith said the facility will create high-quality jobs and strengthen Puget Sound’s technology and aerospace sectors, and Des Moines Mayor Yoshiko Grace Matsui said the community is positioned to support a talented workforce in a new aerospace sector.

“Both these regions were building airplanes before Shield AI existed, and we went to them for that reason,” said Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft at Shield AI. Harris said Wichita has more than a hundred years of aircraft manufacturing and more than a third of all American general aviation airplanes built there, and that Puget Sound has been producing aircraft at rate for seventy years. X-BAT will be built in Washington and fly in Kansas before it goes to a customer, he said.

Production Timeline and Economic Projections

X-BAT is planned to begin production in 2029 and reach full rate in the early 2030s. Flight testing will begin later in 2026, the company said.

The projections are based on the IMPLAN model, 2024 Data Year, with projection years 2026 to 2046 for model regions including Wichita, Kansas; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington; and Texas, according to the source note in the announcement. Inputs were provided by Shield AI, which said the analysis estimates what each region gains if the program runs as planned and that the employment projections reflect the program at rate.

In the Newton area, the analysis projects X-BAT supporting about 1,800 jobs in the early 2030s and about 2,900 by 2046, adding roughly $5 billion to the regional economy over that period. In the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region, it projects about 8,000 jobs in the early 2030s and about 27,000 by 2046, adding roughly $73 billion. The job counts include people employed by Shield AI, people at suppliers, and jobs sustained by local spending from both groups.

Frisco remains Shield AI’s prototyping site and the home of its V-BAT aircraft, and the company said it continues to build, operate and hire there. The analysis puts Frisco alone at about 600 jobs in the early 2030s and about 700 by 2046. Texas suppliers carry much of the rest of the program, including propulsion and mission systems work, and across the state X-BAT is projected to support about 1,400 jobs in the early 2030s and about 7,900 by 2046, adding roughly $18.6 billion to the Texas economy.

X-BAT Design and Program Status

Shield AI describes X-BAT as a long-range, survivable, AI-piloted strike fighter designed to operate from ships, islands or remote sites without a runway. The aircraft is designed to carry weapons up to the 2,000-pound class in internal bays comparable in size to the F-35’s, with an objective combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles, and to support power-intensive electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads. X-BAT is powered by GE Aerospace’s (GE ) F110 engine and flies on Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software, which enables operations without GPS or communications.

Specifications listed on the X-BAT product page include a 39-foot wingspan, a maximum range greater than 2,000 nautical miles, a ceiling above 50,000 feet and a maneuver load factor above 4g. The aircraft carries air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons in its internal bays and can carry large strike weapons on external hardpoints, and three X-BATs fit in the deck space of one legacy fighter, according to the company.

The company states that in eighteen months X-BAT has progressed through wind tunnel, pole and engine testing, with the structural pathfinder in fabrication. First VTOL flights are scheduled for 2026, and mission capability is targeted by 2028. Hivemind has been operationally validated since 2019 and deployed on more than 30 platforms, according to Shield AI.

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company whose products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. The company has offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.