ROBBRIEF
Shield AI, Poland's state defense group PGZ, and the Polish Air Force's WZL 2 aircraft maintenance depot signed a five year letter of intent at the MSPO defence exhibition in Kielce to explore co production of X BAT, a vertical takeoff AI piloted
NATO's eastern flank has few hardened airfields, and runways are among the first targets in any conflict. A vertical-takeoff, AI-piloted combat jet wants to be the answer. On 2026-09-08, Shield AI, Poland's state defense group PGZ (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa S.A.), and the Polish Air Force's main aircraft depot WZL-2 signed a five-year letter of intent at the MSPO defence exhibition in Kielce to explore designing, producing, and sustaining Shield AI's X-BAT, an F110-powered fighter built for vertical takeoff and landing, in Poland.
The LoI's scope stretches beyond airframes. It also covers Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT aircraft, plus maintenance, training, supply-chain participation, and technology transfer across other PGZ companies. PGZ vice president Piotr Zawieja framed Poland as a substantive industrial and technology partner, not a customer. The X-BAT is built to operate from roads, ships, and small sites, a dispersal pitch aimed at a runway-scarce front line.
The document itself is non-binding. It names no Polish Ministry of Defence procurement, no order book, and no funding line. The single firm anchor is WZL-2's existing maintenance capability for the F110 engine family that powers X-BAT. The engine recently completed light-off with thrust-vectoring nozzle integration, and initial test aircraft are now complete ahead of the jet's first flight.
What remains open: whether the LoI's five-year runway produces a definitive deal, what Polish or coalition funding would have to materialize, and what the dispersal-versus-payload trade actually costs in range, sortie rate, and SEAD exposure.