Shield AI has rolled out its first prototype X-BAT, with a senior company official noting to Janes strong European interest in the unmanned vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) ‘strike jet' now being developed for runway-free operations. The announcement of the rollout of X-BAT 001 at Shield AI's Frisco facility in Texas in early November 2026 coincided with the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2026 in Munich, Germany. The company's director of collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) Europe, Andrew Hawkes, used the event to update Janes on the programme and note increasing European interest building since the capability was first revealed in late 2025. Hawkes said on 4 November 2026 that it was 12 months ago that X-BAT was made public as a concept, that the build of the first prototype aircraft left the Frisco factory last week, and that it is a full-size aircraft with full autonomy and full integration of the General Electric F110-GE-129 engine with thrust vectoring. He added that it will fly at the company's Kansas test range by the end of this year.