Defense tech company Shield AI expands in WA for new stealth fighter

Doubling down on the Puget Sound, defense technology company Shield AI is building a brand new production facility for its newest stealth fighter, the XBAT. This is a program that could inject $73 billion and thousands of jobs into the Seattle region. And now they are announcing they are buying Kirkland-based radar pioneer Echodyne for $5.3 billion. Joining us now, Shield AI co-founder Brandon Tseng. Brandon, good morning to you. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Well, congratulations on the acquisition, and it sounds like the company is growing leaps and bounds. Let's talk about the XBAT. This is an autonomous aircraft. It doesn't need a runway. It can operate completely cut off from GPS or satellite links, and you just released a prototype. So tell us more about what the XBAT does and where it will be used. Yeah, so XBAT is a one-of-a-kind vertical takeoff launch and land AI piloted fighter jet designed to do the missions of fifth and sixth generation fighter jets for a fraction of the cost. You said it, we recently unveiled our first prototype that will go to first flight out of our test facility in Kansas. There's a supersonic test range that we fly out there, But the plan right now is, and the plan moving forward is to... Produce XBAT in the Seattle area out of Des Moines. We'll be leasing, you know, well north of a million square feet. And I actually expect that we will be the largest employer in the Seattle region over the next several years. Fastest growing Seattle employer for sure. And you just you just mentioned to me that you're working closely with the Navy on this thing, right? Yes, sir. Yep. The U.S. Navy is the primary sponsor of the XBAT. They envision a future where expats are coming off of all sorts of shifts, but certainly our aircraft carriers. Thank you. The Navy obviously owns the Marine Corps as well. And so the Marine Corps is operating from islands. You can't put a lot of runways all over these islands, but being runway independent. It allows the Marines to operate. They've been a terrific partner. They're excited to see first flight happen later this year as well. And there are concerns about autonomous military equipment, as you know, but if this can operate cut off from human observation, how are you making sure that they operate ethically and that there's accountability? Yeah, no, fantastic question. I have a question. My background, one, actually, I'm from the Pacific Northwest. I grew up on Mercer Island. I was a paperboy for the Seattle Times. But two, I became a U.S. Navy SEAL, deployed twice to Afghanistan, once to the Pacific, once to the Arabian Gulf. And during my time in the SEAL teams, I had to make the moral decision about the use of lethal force. Very familiar with that decision-making process. I fundamentally believe that that is a human choice. It should only stay with humans, the ability to make those choices. That's no different as we think about autonomous systems. When you're talking about use of lethal force, when you're talking about rules of engagement, there's always going to be a human in the loop or on the loop. And that's, you know, my policy, that's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s policy, that's the U.S. Department of War's policy, that's NATO's policy. So it's pretty well understood. And, you know, to that point, no one wants to have autonomous killing machines. That is not what S.H.I.E.L.D.'s building. Why did Shield decide to... invest so heavily in Des Moines? Look, it comes down to the Seattle area has got terrific Manufacturing and engineering talent density. And when you're talking about, hey, we're going to have to hire thousands, multiple thousands of employees in the region, engineers, technicians, manufacturing professionals, and then just also the business professionals that go along with it, we're really looking for that talent density. And obviously, again, I grew up in the Seattle area, the Amazons, the Microsofts, the Boeings of the world. There's just the right Right level, you've got SpaceX with Starlink up there now. And so when we're trying to attract and build the best team in aviation, the best team in autonomy and mission systems, there really wasn't a better place than to go to the Pacific Northwest, go to the Seattle area for us. $5.3 billion deal for Echodyne. How does their technology shape Shield's future? Yeah, it's a terrific business. They have primarily been building radars that help with counter drone detection. Actually, you know, their best-selling product is called Echo Shield. It fits really nicely with our name, but they share a common mission with us, which is protecting, you know, service members and civilians in this new age of autonomy. And for us, we've been, you know, the way to think of our business, we have a software aspect of our business, we have an autonomous systems aspect of our business. And then the third leg. has been Mission Systems, and so we've been looking at this space for a long time, tracking all the great stuff that the Echodyne team has built over the past 12 years. And it just was the right time to bring the two companies together and join forces, and I couldn't be more excited. And then again, obviously, they're going to be another launching point for us in the Seattle region as we continue to grow our employee base out there. A literal launching point. Brandon Singh is the co-founder of Shield AI. Great to have you. Good chat. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Continued success to you. Okay.