Shield AI today announced the expansion of their partnership with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to co-develop and proliferate Artificial Intelligence (AI) across a wider range of autonomous drone applications using Shield AI’s Hivemind software development kit (SDK).
Building on existing explorations and early use cases, the expansion looks to develop and embed autonomous capabilities across multiple drone’s applications, using the SDK to tailor AI solutions for current operational and future environments. The collaboration has allowed RSAF and DSTA to use Shield AI’s SDK to independently design, test, and deploy mission autonomy.
Within six months, operational and developer feedback from the RSAF and DSTA has led to refinements to the SDK, strengthening their developers’ capability to develop and deploy mission autonomy for RSAF’s Concept of Operations (CONOPs). The mission autonomy supports users in completing missions safely and effectively without human intervention and is able to reroute around no-fly zones, avoid threats and respond to unexpected conditions.
“RSAF and DSTA have been outstanding partners,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s president and co-founder. “Through their adoption of the Hivemind platform, Singapore is on a path to become the first country outside the United States with true sovereign autonomy, meaning the ability to develop and field its own AI pilots across its platforms. This matters because autonomy is a way to decouple military fighting strength from population size, and in Singapore’s case, from a declining population, a challenge many nations around the world also face.”
“Building our capability to independently develop and field mission autonomy is a priority and an important step forward,” said DSTA’s chief executive Mr Ng Chad-Son. “This collaboration goes beyond technology adoption. It allows our defence engineers and aircrew to develop hands-on experience that will grow a sustainable pipeline of AI specialists with good operational understanding. We will continue to leverage market solutions to integrate autonomy across a broader spectrum of applications for the RSAF, ensuring our unmanned systems are highly adaptable and mission-ready for any challenge.”
The agreement was announced during the Singapore Airshow 2026, where Brandon Tseng participated in a panel on autonomy and human-machine teaming. Tom Schaefer, vice president of Hivemind engineering at Shield AI, spoke the same day at the Singapore Aerospace Technology and Engineering Conference, held on the sidelines of the airshow, on software-driven autonomy for next-generation defense systems.