But for San Diego-based Shield AI, validation has looked a little different. In April of this year, Russian armed forces fired two HESA Shahed 136 missiles into a hangar in Kyiv, where a team of 30 Shield AI employees had been doing research and development just two weeks earlier. The missiles turned the facility into a skeleton of twisted metal and rubble, according to a photo and video footage reviewed by Fortune. Incredibly, no one was harmed. James Lythgoe, a former U.K. Royal Marine who is now Shield AI’s managing director of Ukrainian operations, had moved the Shield AI employees to a new site, as he had been concerned about the newfound attention that its sprawling nine-foot-tall surveillance drone, the V-BAT, was picking up. “We were advised that the Russians were very aware of a new capability on the battlefield,” Lythgoe says. On the frontlines in Ukraine, Russian jammers intersect communications and radio signals, leading drones to veer off course or even fall from the sky and crash. Many U.S. drones haven’t been able to perform. But after an eight-month iteration period in 2024, Shield AI’s V-BAT cleared rigorous Ukrainian jamming tests. In 2025 alone, the drones have executed more than 35 missions and identified more than 200 Russian targets in the warzone, according to the company. The initial success Shield AI has seen with V-BAT in Ukraine and on U.S. shores with the Coast Guard and Marines has helped the startup land a $5.6 billion valuation and positioned it as one of the hottest defense startups of 2025, right behind its higher-valued and more hardware-heavy rival Anduril Industries.

Full feature : A look at military tech startup Shield AI, recently valued at $5.6 billion, and its new CEO Gary Steele, who aims to grow annual revenue from $300 million to $1 billion by 2028.

For more see the OODA Company Profile on Shield AI.