► The RSAF, DSTA and SHIELD AI expand partnership on progressive fielding of autonomy capablities

February 05, 2026 – Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), jointly with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), has begun to expand their partnership expand their partnership with the U.S.’ Shield AI to co-develop and proliferate Artificial Intelligence (AI) across a wider range of autonomous drones 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 our developers’ capability to develop and deploy mission autonomy for RSAF’s Concept of Operations. The mission autonomy thus 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.

“The 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 helps decouple military fighting strength from population size, and in Singapore’s case, from a declining population, a challenge shared by many nations around the world.”

“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.