Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has completed flight demonstrations of AI-powered mission autonomy for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), achieving the full process from development to flight in eight weeks through collaboration with U.S. firm Shield AI Inc.
The project utilized Shield AI’s Hivemind Enterprise AI development environment, enabling MHI to prioritize mission autonomy over building custom setups from multiple open-source tools, which previously required substantial effort. Development started in September 2025, with the AI undergoing training, simulation evaluation, and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing before installation on the ARMD (Affordable Rapid-prototyping Mitsubishi-Drone initiative) UAV.
Flights occurred on November 7, 2025, in Inashiki District, Ibaraki Prefecture, and December 18, 2025, in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, confirming successful autonomous operations. This marks a departure from prior in-house coding-intensive methods, streamlining UAV mission capabilities.
MHI views mission autonomy as essential for Japan’s UAV operations and stresses domestic production. The company and Shield AI plan to deepen ties to accelerate further advancements in this technology, aligning with Japan’s defense goals for integrated manned-unmanned systems.
The ARMD platform supports rapid prototyping, fitting into broader efforts like AI-equipped combat support drones revealed by MHI in 2024 for 2025 test flights under contract with Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency.