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DefenseScoop: Pentagon selects Shield AI to plug swarm software into LUCAS drone

3 min read

Summary

DefenseScoop reports that the Pentagon selected shield-ai to integrate its Hivemind swarm/autonomy software onto the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) — a one-way attack drone the U.S. military cloned from an Iranian variant and used in combat for the first time during operation-epic-fury (per centcom and the Pentagon’s CTO, March 2026). Per the company’s May 19 press release, hivemind will act as LUCAS’s “AI pilot,” enabling drones to “sense, decide, and act independently” under one human operator commanding a swarm. Shield AI plans a fall 2026 demonstration but would not confirm whether selection is tied to an existing contract. The story situates the award against the Iran war’s Shahed-driven cost-imbalance pressure, December 2025 littoral-combat-ship LUCAS launch, and the Trump FY27 budget request of 21B for munitions, counter-drone systems, and collaborative combat aircraft, with a large RDT&E increase for the drone-focused defense-autonomous-warfare-group. Reinforces the autonomous-warfare / drone-dominance FY27 priority lines.

Key Claims

  • Pentagon selected Shield AI to integrate Hivemind swarm software onto LUCAS (per Shield AI press release).
  • LUCAS is a U.S.-built clone of an Iranian one-way attack drone; cost in the mid-to-low tens of thousands.
  • centcom used LUCAS in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury against Iran (per Pentagon CTO, March 2026).
  • Initial LUCAS production was “just dozens” of systems.
  • Hivemind will be the “AI pilot” — coordinate, maneuver, adapt in real time; one operator commands a swarm.
  • Hivemind dynamically reroutes mission plans, responds to unexpected conditions, avoids obstacles (vs. preplanned-route autopilots).
  • Capability demonstration planned “this fall”; no date specified.
  • LUCAS first launched from a littoral combat ship in December 2025 during a Middle East exercise.
  • Iranian Shaheds cost less than the U.S. counter-measures used to defeat them (cost-imbalance framing).
  • Trump FY27 request: 21B munitions, counter-drone, CCA.
  • defense-autonomous-warfare-group RDT&E line saw a “massive increase” in the proposed budget.

Notable Quotes

“Hivemind will serve as the AI pilot for the LUCAS program, enabling groups of drones to coordinate, maneuver, and adapt together to changing conditions in real time, based on warfighter input.” — Shield AI press release

“Unlike traditional autopilots that cannot deviate from preplanned routes, Hivemind dynamically reroutes mission plans, responds to unexpected conditions, avoids obstacles, and executes complex tasks safely and effectively.” — Shield AI

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