Shield AI Named Kansas and Washington as the Homes for X-BAT

So basically: On Sept. 30, Shield AI named Newton, Kansas, as the place it will flight-test X-BAT, and Des Moines, Washington, as the place it will build it. Production is planned to start in 2029. Flight testing is planned to start later this year.

The two sites

X-BAT is Shield AI’s AI-piloted fighter, built to take off and land vertically. X-Forge 2, at Newton City-County Airport, is the flight test and sustainment home. Every jet is supposed to finish production acceptance testing there before a customer gets it. Newton is also the planned center for maintenance, repair, and overhaul. Shield AI says it already leases hangar and office space and about 10 acres at the airport, and it is working with the city and Harvey County on a larger hangar. It first committed to Newton in 2025.

X-Forge 3, in Des Moines, Washington, just south of Seattle, is the factory. Shield AI says it has signed the lease and is building the site out now. Hiring for the program has moved to that region. X-Forge 1 in Frisco, Texas, stays the prototyping site and the home of V-BAT, the smaller aircraft Shield AI already flies.

The airplane, as Shield AI describes it

Shield AI says X-BAT is a long-range strike fighter with no pilot onboard. It is meant to operate from ships, islands, or remote sites without a runway. The company says it will carry weapons up to the 2,000-pound class in internal bays it compares in size to the F-35’s, with an objective combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles. The engine is GE Aerospace’s F110. The software is Shield AI’s Hivemind, which the company says can fly without GPS or a communications link.

The job numbers are a model

Shield AI’s headline is about 9,800 American jobs by the early 2030s, and about $78 billion added to the Newton and Seattle-area economies through 2046. The breakdown is an IMPLAN estimate, using 2024 data, for 2026 through 2046, with inputs from Shield AI. It counts Shield AI employees, suppliers, and jobs from local spending, and only if the program runs as planned.

Newton: about 1,800 jobs in the early 2030s and about 2,900 by 2046, and about $5 billion over that period. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region: about 8,000 jobs in the early 2030s and about 27,000 by 2046, and about $73 billion. Frisco alone is about 600 jobs in the early 2030s. Across Texas, the same model puts X-BAT at about 1,400 jobs in the early 2030s and about $18.6 billion. Those Texas figures are not inside the 9,800.

My take

Naming a factory and a flight-test airport is a real step. It is not an airplane in service. The date that matters this year is flight test, which Shield AI says starts later in 2026. Production is still planned for 2029, and full rate is the early 2030s. The job totals are a model of a program that has not started building jets yet.