Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software is going onto Australian-built loitering munitions. At Land Forces 2026 in Perth, the US autonomy company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Perth-based Innovaero Technologies to integrate Hivemind into Innovaero's One Way Loitering (OWL) family. Shield AI announced the agreement on Oct. 6. According to Janes, the stated goal is faster mission planning.

The integration work has already started. Hivemind has been integrated onto the electric OWL-B ahead of upcoming flight tests, and the companies are simulating coordinated multi-agent strike missions with commands issued through the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) tactical interface. Neither company disclosed a value for the MoU, and none of the reporting available to UASFeed mentions an Australian Defence Force (ADF) order tied to the agreement.

The OWL Family at a Glance

Janes reports that the OWL family has three members, each at a different stage of maturity:

  • OWL-B: electric and intended for medium-range strike. Innovaero began developing it in 2022 in collaboration with the ADF. This is the variant that already carries Hivemind.
  • OWL-X: jet-powered and in development.
  • OWL-C: long-range and still in the design phase.

OWL-B also has government money behind it. Maj Gen Hugh Meggitt, head of the Department of Defence's Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), told Janes in May that Innovaero received an AUD20.8 million (USD14.4 million) contract in September 2025 to advance the OWL-B. That contract came before the Shield AI agreement, and the sources do not say whether any of that funding covers the autonomy integration.

Defence Connect describes Innovaero as an Australian aerospace and defence manufacturer and the OWL line as an Australian-designed suite of autonomous precision munitions. It says the partnership is meant to deliver greater strike capability to the ADF.

What Hivemind Adds

A one-way attack drone can already fly to a target. Shield AI is pitching faster mission planning, coordination of multiple aircraft, and continued operation when GPS or communications are degraded.

Shield AI vice president Adam Hogan told Australian Defence Magazine that the software would help the ADF plan and execute missions faster, coordinate multiple aircraft, and operate when GPS or communications are degraded. That last capability is the one to watch for loitering munitions: a munition that depends on a clean GPS signal or a constant datalink to its operator is easier to defeat.

Hivemind was not built for this airframe. Australian Defence Magazine reports that it has piloted more than 40 classes of vehicles, including F-16s, Group 5 collaborative combat aircraft, helicopters, drone boats and one-way attack drones. Shield AI's argument is that one autonomy stack can be carried across platforms, so the OWL family would get software that has already flown on other aircraft instead of a system written from scratch.

The ATAK simulations show how the companies expect the system to be used: mission commands issued through the ATAK tactical interface, with the autonomy software handling coordinated multi-agent strikes. Those strikes have so far been run in simulation. The flight tests that come next will be the first public check of how well the integration performs on real aircraft.

Who Controls the Technology

Innovaero has been careful about control of the technology. CEO Greg Tunny told Australian Defence Magazine that the collaboration would "bring advanced mission autonomy to the OWL family" while "preserving Australia's control over its critical defence technologies."

Putting a US company's autonomy software inside an Australian-designed weapon raises obvious questions about who owns the code, who can change it, and who can export it. Hogan said the collaboration "will also give Australia greater control over how that autonomy is developed, tested and fielded." The public reporting does not explain how the MoU actually divides control.

Australia as a Base for Shield AI

The OWL deal sits alongside a larger Shield AI push in Australia. In a separate Janes report from Land Forces 2026, the company described Australia as its largest footprint outside the United States, a focus company officials say is driven by opportunities associated with AUKUS Pillar II.

Hogan described the arrangement as two-way. He said the Australian presence lets Shield AI "build capability here and then return it back to the central repositories." In other words, work done in Australia feeds back into the company's core product rather than staying a local branch.

Some of that work comes from an acquisition. Janes reports that ViDAR, the flagship product of Sentient Vision Systems, which Shield AI acquired in 2024 and which has been used on platforms such as the ScanEagle, is being folded back into the mission autonomy perception stack used on platforms like V-BAT and X-BAT. Shield AI also hopes to use its vision analytics to track drones from land- and air-based platforms, identify them and hand them off to an effector. That points toward a counter-drone role for the technology.

Why It Matters

The agreement puts a widely deployed autonomy stack onto a small Australian strike munition at a time when militaries are trying to field cheap, numerous one-way attack drones that can coordinate with each other and survive jamming. The value of Hivemind on OWL-B depends on whether multi-agent coordination and operation in degraded GPS and communications conditions hold up in flight, not just in ATAK simulations.

The deal also tests how AUKUS Pillar II works for companies. Shield AI is treating Australia as a base whose work feeds its central repositories, while Innovaero is publicly insisting that Australia keeps control of its own weapons technology. Both can be true, but the terms of the arrangement have not been made public.

Some things are still unknown. No MoU value has been disclosed, the sources do not mention an ADF order for Hivemind-equipped OWLs, and the OWL-X and OWL-C variants are still in development and design. The OWL-B flight tests are the next milestone to watch.

Sources