{"id":406720,"date":"2026-04-16T11:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/australianaviation.com.au\/?p=1430884"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:30:35","slug":"breaking-the-mould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=406720","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the mould"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img width=\"640\" height=\"782\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSI2NDAiIGhlaWdodD0iNzgyIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTAwJSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMDAlIj48YW5pbWF0ZSBhdHRyaWJ1dGVOYW1lPSJmaWxsIiB2YWx1ZXM9InJnYmEoMTUzLDE1MywxNTMsMC41KTtyZ2JhKDE1MywxNTMsMTUzLDAuMSk7cmdiYSgxNTMsMTUzLDE1MywwLjUpIiBkdXI9IjJzIiByZXBlYXRDb3VudD0iaW5kZWZpbml0ZSIgLz48L3JlY3Q+PC9zdmc+\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image wp-image-1430973 wp-post-1430884\" alt=\"\" style=\"float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" data-public-id=\"Australian Aviation\/P016_X-Bat_01_ijd7vm\/P016_X-Bat_01_ijd7vm.jpg\" data-format=\"jpg\" data-transformations=\"f_auto\" data-version=\"1775786185\" data-seo=\"1\" data-responsive=\"1\" data-size=\"640 782\" data-delivery=\"upload\" onload=\";window.CLDBind?CLDBind(this):null;\" data-cloudinary=\"lazy\" \/>The future of VTOL autonomous fighters in the Indo-Pacific In October 2025, US start-up Shield AI unveiled X-BAT, a radical new jet-powered \u201cloyal wingman\u201d drone intended to fly autonomously alongside manned fighters. The company, known for its Hivemind AI flight software and the smaller V-BAT surveillance drone, describes X-BAT as an AI-piloted, runway-independent fighter. It<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The future of VTOL autonomous fighters in the Indo-Pacific In October 2025, US start-up Shield AI unveiled X-BAT, a radical new jet-powered \u201cloyal wingman\u201d drone intended to fly autonomously alongside manned fighters. The company, known for its Hivemin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20091,273,312,4773,477,19001],"tags":[472],"class_list":["post-406720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20091","category-australia","category-aviation","category-premium-article","category-premium-content","category-premium-exclusive","tag-australian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406721,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406720\/revisions\/406721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}