{"id":4330,"date":"2025-10-25T13:40:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T13:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/25\/americas-bat-man-unveils-tech-built-to-outsmart-a-chinese-first-strike\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T13:40:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T13:40:36","slug":"americas-bat-man-unveils-tech-built-to-outsmart-a-chinese-first-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/25\/americas-bat-man-unveils-tech-built-to-outsmart-a-chinese-first-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s \u2018BAT\u2019 man unveils tech built to outsmart a Chinese first strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysts say China has developed a chilling strategy for fighting a war with the United States: destroy America\u2019s fighter jets before they ever leave the ground.<\/p>\n

In nearly every modern conflict, disabling enemy aircraft on the ground has been the first move. When Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year, it began by destroying Iranian runways \u2014 grounding Tehran\u2019s air force before it could take off. Russia and Ukraine have done the same throughout their ongoing war, targeting airfields to cripple enemy aircraft. And when India clashed with Pakistan, the opening salvos hit Pakistani air bases.<\/p>\n

Beijing has taken that lesson to heart. The People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA)<\/u> has spent years building an arsenal of long-range precision missiles \u2014 including ‘carrier killers’ like the DF-21D and DF-26 \u2014 capable of destroying U.S. aircraft carriers and striking American airfields across the Pacific. The goal: keep U.S. air power out of range before it can even launch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now, a U.S. defense technology firm says it has built a way to fight back. Shield AI, based in San Diego, has unveiled a new AI-piloted fighter jet designed to operate without runways, without GPS, and without constant communication links \u2014 an aircraft that can think, fly, and fight on its own.<\/p>\n

Shield AI says the jet, called X-BAT, can take off vertically, reach 50,000 feet, fly more than 2,000 nautical miles, and execute strike or air defense missions using an onboard autonomy system known as Hivemind. It\u2019s designed to operate from ships, small islands, or improvised sites \u2014 places where traditional jets can\u2019t. The aircraft\u2019s dash speed remains classified.<\/p>\n

‘China has built this anti-access aerial denial bubble that holds our runways at risk,’ said Armor Harris, Shield AI\u2019s senior vice president of aircraft engineering, in an interview with Fox News. ‘They\u2019ve basically said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to compete stealth-on-stealth in the air \u2014 we\u2019ll target your aircraft before they even get off the ground.\u2019’<\/p>\n

The jet launches vertically, and three X-BATs can fit in the space of one legacy fighter or helicopter.<\/p>\n

According to Harris, the U.S. has spent decades perfecting stealth and survivability in the air while leaving its forces vulnerable on the ground. ‘The way to solve that problem is mobility,’ he said. ‘You\u2019re always moving around. This is the only VTOL fighter being built today.’<\/p>\n

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X-BAT\u2019s Hivemind autonomy allows it to operate in denied or jammed environments, where traditional aircraft would be blind. The system uses onboard sensors to interpret its surroundings, reroute around threats, and identify targets in real time. ‘It\u2019s reading and reacting to the situation around it,’ Harris said. ‘It\u2019s not flying a pre-programmed route. If new threats appear, it can reroute itself or identify targets and then ask a human for permission to engage.’<\/p>\n

That human element, he emphasized, remains essential. ‘It\u2019s very important to us that a human is always involved in making the use of lethal force decision,’ Harris said. ‘That doesn\u2019t mean the person has to be in the cockpit \u2014 it could be remote or delegated through tasking \u2014 but there will always be a human decision-maker.’<\/p>\n

Shield AI says X-BAT will be combat-ready by 2029 and is designed to deliver fifth- or sixth-generation performance at a small fraction of the cost of manned fighters. The aircraft\u2019s compact footprint allows up to three X-BATs to fit in the deck space of a single legacy fighter or helicopter, giving commanders more flexibility in launching sorties from limited space.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While Shield AI isn\u2019t disclosing specific numbers, the company says X-BAT is priced in the same range as the Air Force\u2019s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, the next generation of autonomous wingmen<\/u> meant to fly alongside \u2014 and eventually ahead of \u2014 manned fighters. Costs vary depending on mission systems and configurations, but the company\u2019s goal is to scale production to keep the jet affordable and sustainable throughout its lifecycle, breaking what it calls the traditional ‘fighter cost curve.’<\/p>\n

The company estimates the aircraft will deliver about a tenfold improvement in cost per effect compared to legacy fifth-generation jets, including the F-35, while remaining ‘affordable and attritable’ enough to be risked in high-end combat.<\/p>\n

Shield AI is in discussions with both the Air Force and Navy about integrating X-BAT into future combat programs and with several allied militaries exploring joint development opportunities.<\/p>\n

Harris said the company views X-BAT as part of a generational shift toward distributed airpower \u2014 one that mirrors what SpaceX did in space. ‘Historically, the United States had a small number of extremely capable, extremely expensive satellites,’ he said. ‘Then you had SpaceX come along and put up hundreds of smaller, cheaper ones. The same thing is happening in air power. There\u2019s always going to be a role for manned platforms, but over time, unmanned systems will outnumber them ten-to-one or twenty-to-one.’<\/p>\n

For Harris, that shift is about restoring deterrence<\/u> through flexibility. ‘X-BAT presents an asymmetric dilemma to an adversary like China,’ he said. ‘They don\u2019t know where it\u2019s coming from, and the cost of countering it is high. It\u2019s an important part of a broader joint force that becomes significantly more lethal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n

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Analysts say China has developed a chilling strategy for fighting a war with the United States: destroy America\u2019s fighter jets before they ever leave the ground. In nearly every modern conflict, disabling enemy aircraft on the ground has been the first move. When Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year, it began by destroying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}