Shield AI and Taiwan's NCSIST Complete Autonomous Swarm Exercise and Expand Sovereign AI and Autonomy Efforts

August 06, 2026

Shield AI and Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) today announced the successful field demonstration of a coordinated autonomous search mission with three NCSIST Mighty Hornet III unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), resulting in a renewed partnership to continue development with Hivemind more broadly across the Institute.

In less than three months, NCSIST engineers, supported by Shield AI, indigenously developed AI pilots and implemented them onto three Mighty Hornet III UAVs. Hivemind autonomously launched and coordinated the agents to perform wide-area search, while respecting a designated no-fly zone. Each agent was assigned its own search area and maintained communications with the other agents, while one agent operated around a partial no-fly zone within its search sector. After completing their mission, Hivemind executed autonomous landing of the Mighty Hornet IIIs.

“You can build ten million drones, but you can’t train ten million drone pilots. Autonomy is the critical enabling technology to effectively leverage drones on the battlefield. Hivemind’s ability to enable autonomous teaming is why autonomy is becoming one of the most important force multipliers in modern defense,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s president and co-founder. “Enabling sovereign development of AI pilots in Taiwan greatly enhances the defense capabilities of the country and we look forward to continuing to build with partners like NCSIST to deliver the mission autonomy Taiwan needs to deter conflict.”

Earlier this year, Shield AI announced its initial contract with NCSIST to integrate Hivemind into their intelligent unmanned systems, supporting both software development and operational fielding. As part of the engagement, NCSIST engineers worked alongside embedded Shield AI engineers, receiving hands-on training that prepared them to independently operate and employ Hivemind-enabled autonomy capabilities. This successful demonstration marked the completion of NCSIST’s contract and resulted in a significant contract expansion.

“With Shield AI’s support, NCSIST achieved a high level of operational proficiency with Hivemind in less than three months,” said NCSIST President Li Shih–chiang. “What impressed us most was not only the high performance of the AI pilot, but Shield AI’s commitment to ensuring we could independently operate and employ the technology in such a short period of time. Their hands-on training and technical expertise and mentorship gave Taiwanese engineers the confidence to integrate and use Hivemind on our own.”

The Hivemind AI pilot enables platforms to sense, decide, and act independently, without human intervention. Hivemind has already piloted more than 30 different platforms including F-16s, jet-powered UAVs, helicopters, drone boats, and ground vehicles.

NCSIST’s Mighty Hornet III is Taiwan’s first X-wing high-agility UAV. The Group 2 aircraft is made up of a 3D-printed, modular airframe for fast, low-cost production. Mighty Hornet III combines the vertical takeoff and landing advantages of multi-rotor platform with the high-speed cruising capabilities of fixed-wing flight, requiring no ground equipment for launch or recovery.

Source : Shield AI