Shield AI has secured a U.S. Air Force production contract to deploy its Hivemind autonomy software as part of the service’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, marking a key step in the military’s effort to field autonomous wingmen alongside crewed fighters.

The award reflects the Air Force’s effort to build a common autonomy software foundation that can be integrated across multiple Collaborative Combat Aircraft designs instead of being developed for a single platform. Officials believe that approach can accelerate upgrades, lower integration costs, and allow new capabilities to reach operational units faster.

Shield AI’s Hivemind software will support the Air Force’s vision for autonomous aircraft that can operate in coordination with human pilots while handling increasingly complex missions.

Software-centric autonomy strategy

The Air Force has adopted a software-first model for its future autonomous fleet. Under this framework, mission autonomy software can evolve independently from the aircraft carrying it.

That separation allows developers to introduce new capabilities without redesigning airframes or modifying platform-specific hardware. The approach also enables the service to evaluate autonomy solutions on their own merits while preserving competition across the broader CCA ecosystem.

Christian Gutierrez, senior vice president of Hivemind at Shield AI, said mission autonomy will play a central role in future airpower operations. “The Air Force’s approach enables faster innovation, rapid capability deployment, and greater operational advantage for the warfighter,” Gutierrez said.

He added that Shield AI plans to continue working closely with the service to deliver collaborative autonomy capabilities at scale.

Multi-aircraft teaming focus

Under the production contract, Shield AI will concentrate on collaborative combat behaviors involving multiple autonomous aircraft operating together under human supervision. The company aims to reduce operator workload while enabling larger groups of unmanned systems to coordinate actions during missions.

Such capabilities could become increasingly important as the Air Force expands its use of autonomous platforms in contested environments. Rather than simply following predetermined routes, Hivemind allows unmanned aircraft to adapt to changing conditions.

The software can adjust flight paths, react to emerging threats, coordinate with nearby aircraft, and support mission objectives without constant operator input. The company says the platform is designed to function as a digital pilot, helping autonomous systems make decisions in real time while remaining part of a broader human-machine team.

Expanding CCA development

The latest award builds on Shield AI’s existing involvement in the Air Force’s CCA efforts. Earlier this year, the company earned selection as a mission autonomy provider during the program’s Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase. That work continues alongside the new production effort.

Hivemind is currently flying aboard Anduril’s YFQ-44A aircraft, one of the platforms supporting ongoing CCA development activities. The Air Force views collaborative combat aircraft as a cornerstone of its future force structure.

By pairing autonomous aircraft with crewed fighters, the service hopes to increase combat capacity, extend operational reach, and provide commanders with more flexible options during future conflicts. As development advances, software platforms such as Hivemind are expected to play a critical role in determining how effectively autonomous aircraft operate alongside human pilots.

Divergent Technologies has unveiled a new industrial metal 3D printer and announced a major manufacturing expansion in Southern California, moves that the company says will significantly increase production capacity for defense and commercial customers.

The California-based manufacturer introduced the Monolith One, a large-format metal additive manufacturing system developed specifically for high-volume production. At the same time, the company revealed plans for a new 430,000-square-foot facility in Long Beach, California, where dozens of the machines will support future manufacturing programs.

Built for production

Unlike many metal 3D printers designed primarily for prototyping, Monolith One targets continuous industrial manufacturing. The machine stands more than eight meters tall and incorporates 12 high-powered lasers that deliver a combined 24 kilowatts of output.

Divergent designed the system over a 28-month period using lessons learned from more than a decade of additive manufacturing operations. The company developed the printer exclusively for use within its own manufacturing ecosystem rather than for commercial sale.

The machine supports a wide range of industrial alloys, including aluminum, steel, titanium, and nickel-based materials. It also offers a larger build chamber than many existing systems, allowing engineers to manufacture bigger and more complex structures in a single print.

According to Divergent, the printer can roughly double production throughput compared with current-generation equipment. The system also incorporates automated powder handling, thermal management controls, and optical monitoring technologies designed to improve consistency and reduce downtime.

Chief Technology Officer Brian Erhartic said the company built the printer specifically to improve manufacturing efficiency and quality. He added that integrating the machine directly into Divergent’s production platform helped unlock higher performance across multiple stages of manufacturing.

Factory expansion plans

Divergent currently operates six Monolith One printers at its headquarters in Torrance, California. The company plans to install an additional 64 systems at its new Long Beach facility over the next two years.

Once fully operational, the site will support production of tens of thousands of munition airframes annually. It will also have the capacity to manufacture hundreds of thousands of critical metal components for aerospace and defense programs.

The expansion comes as defense contractors seek faster production methods and more resilient domestic supply chains. Traditional manufacturing processes often require lengthy lead times for complex hardware, particularly in aerospace applications.

Divergent says its software-driven manufacturing approach reduces those timelines from months to weeks or even days in some cases. The company supplies structures and components for several major defense and aerospace organizations, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and CoAspire.

Chief Executive Officer Lukas Czinger said the new printer reflects years of operational experience gained from delivering production hardware to both defense and commercial customers. He noted that the company manufactures the systems domestically and sources key components through a U.S.-based supply chain.

As production ramps up at the Long Beach facility, Divergent expects the new manufacturing capacity to support growing demand for mission-critical hardware while strengthening domestic industrial capabilities.

Australia is accelerating efforts to protect frontline troops from the growing threat of small drones, awarding a contract to defense technology firm OpenWorks under the Australian Defence Force’s Land 156 counter-drone program.

The company will supply its Vision Guard intelligent optics system for evaluation as part of the ADF’s AU$1.3 billion initiative to strengthen defenses against uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). Military planners intend to use the compact platform as an early-warning capability for dismounted soldiers operating in contested environments.

The move reflects a broader shift among Western militaries toward distributed counter-drone systems. Recent conflicts have highlighted how inexpensive commercial and military-grade drones can threaten troops far from traditional air defense coverage.

Frontline use

OpenWorks designed Vision Guard to give soldiers rapid situational awareness without adding significant weight to their equipment. The system combines panoramic surveillance with artificial intelligence-driven detection software to identify and track small drones at extended distances.

Operators can deploy the system in less than two minutes, allowing units to establish surveillance positions quickly. OpenWorks says troops can carry the core equipment and supporting sensors inside a standard military backpack.

The platform supports multiple sensor configurations. Users can integrate active and passive detection technologies, including radar and acoustic sensors, depending on mission requirements. OpenWorks’ software then fuses data from those sensors to improve detection accuracy and reduce operator workload.

The company developed the system with strict size, weight, and power requirements in mind. That approach allows small units to operate independently while maintaining awareness of nearby aerial threats.

AI-powered drone detection

At the center of Vision Guard is OpenWorks’ proprietary artificial intelligence engine. The software analyzes incoming sensor data and automatically classifies potential threats. The system focuses on detecting and identifying Class 1 drones, which are among the smallest categories of military and commercial unmanned aircraft.

Despite their size, these drones have become a persistent battlefield challenge because they are inexpensive, difficult to detect, and increasingly capable. By providing early warning, Vision Guard aims to give troops additional time to respond before a drone can conduct surveillance or deliver an attack.

Defense organizations across Europe and the United States have already tested or deployed the technology. The system also participated in Project Vanaheim, a joint U.K.-U.S. experimentation effort that examined future approaches to interoperable counter-drone operations.

Growing counter-drone demand

The Australian contract comes as militaries worldwide increase investment in layered counter-UAS networks. Rather than relying solely on large strategic assets, defense planners increasingly seek portable systems that can move with frontline forces.

James Cross, chief commercial officer at OpenWorks, said the company recognizes the responsibility associated with supporting the Australian military’s modernization efforts. He described Vision Guard as a compact system designed to improve situational awareness for dispersed units. Cross added that OpenWorks is proud to support Australia’s efforts to strengthen counter-drone capabilities.

As drone threats continue to evolve, defense programs such as Land 156 are expected to play a key role in shaping the next generation of battlefield surveillance and force protection technologies.

Food spoilage remains difficult to detect before it becomes a health risk. Consumers often rely on appearance and smell other than expiry dates to judge whether products are still safe to eat, despite the limitations of those methods.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a sensor system designed to provide a more objective assessment. The technology combines miniature gas sensors with machine-learning software to identify chemical signatures associated with food spoilage and common allergens.

The researchers believe the system could eventually support smart appliances and food monitoring tools that help consumers make safer decisions about what they eat.

Digital scent recognition

The device contains 16 microscopic gas sensors, each designed to respond differently to airborne chemical compounds. Together, the sensors create distinct response patterns when exposed to different foods.

Lead author Carla Bassil, a doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley, described the system as a set of digital taste buds. Each sensor converts chemical interactions into electrical signals, allowing the device to generate a unique signature for specific foods.

Researchers then trained machine-learning models to recognize those signatures. The team tested the system on strawberries, blueberries, bananas, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and peanuts. It also learned to distinguish between fresh and spoiled samples of milk, eggs, and raw chicken.

“The idea is that we can use the relative selectivity of the gas sensors, paired with the pattern recognition abilities of machine learning,” Bassil said. By combining sensor data with artificial intelligence, the system can identify food-related chemical fingerprints more consistently than human smell alone.

Allergen detection potential

The study also highlighted the technology’s ability to detect allergen-containing foods. During testing, the electronic nose identified as little as 0.05 grams of walnut material, roughly one-hundredth of an average shelled walnut. That level of sensitivity could support future food safety applications for people with severe allergies.

Researchers caution that the device has not yet been tested in more complex settings. Future evaluations will examine how well it performs when allergens are mixed with other foods or when multiple food odors are present at the same time.

The spoilage experiments focused on chicken, milk, and eggs left at room temperature for 24 and 48 hours. The system successfully differentiated between fresh and deteriorated samples by analyzing changes in the gases they released.

Carbon nanotube design

Electronic noses have existed for decades, but manufacturing multiple sensing materials on a single chip has remained a significant challenge. Bassil’s team addressed that problem by using carbon nanotubes instead of conventional metal-oxide materials. The nanotubes form extremely thin conductive layers with large surface areas, making them highly sensitive to chemical compounds at room temperature.

Operating without high temperatures also allowed the researchers to use a wider range of sensing materials, including polymers that might degrade under heat. The design further simplified manufacturing by enabling different sensing materials to be deposited in a single fabrication step.

Although the current study focused on laboratory testing, Bassil has already developed a portable version that connects to an iPhone application. Future work will focus on improving reliability and evaluating the system in real-world environments.

Ali Javey, Berkeley’s Lam Research Distinguished Chair in Semiconductor Processing, served as the study’s senior author. Researchers from Berkeley and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology also contributed to the project.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Morgan State University and its partners have secured a $3.37 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a new class of nuclear-powered energy systems that could operate for decades without refueling.

The project, known as SYMPHONEE, aims to convert energy released by radioactive decay directly into electricity. Researchers believe the technology could provide reliable power for applications where batteries and conventional power systems struggle, including space missions, underwater infrastructure, remote sensors, and military platforms.

Morgan State leads the effort alongside Northrop Grumman, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Project Omega, Applied Research Associates (ARA), and Widetronix. The work falls under DARPA’s Rads to Watts program, which seeks to advance compact power systems with higher energy output and longer lifespans.

Turning waste into power

At the heart of the project is a radiovoltaic device that uses radioisotopes such as Strontium-90 to generate electricity. Unlike traditional batteries, these systems draw energy from radioactive decay and can continue operating for years with minimal maintenance.

The team plans to combine advanced semiconductor materials with beta-emitting isotopes to improve both performance and durability. Researchers also intend to use isotopes recovered from recycled nuclear fuel and legacy nuclear waste streams. Professor Michael Spencer, the project’s technical lead at Morgan State University, said the team is working to expand the limits of radiovoltaic technology.

“Our team is pushing the boundaries of radiovoltaic technology,” Spencer said. “By integrating advanced materials, device engineering, and nuclear science, we are laying the foundation for a new generation of persistent power systems.” The researchers will conduct much of the device development and testing at PNNL, where they aim to improve radiation tolerance while maintaining efficiency.

Focus on power density

DARPA’s program focuses heavily on power density, a key measure that determines how much electrical power a system can generate relative to its weight. Higher power density could make radiovoltaic systems more practical for missions where size, weight, and maintenance requirements remain critical constraints.

Early modeling suggests the technology could meet or exceed program targets for both specific power and energy density. If successful, the systems could unlock new capabilities for long-duration operations in remote and harsh environments. Project Omega CEO Stafford Sheehan said the effort could transform materials once considered waste into valuable energy resources.

“Our mission is to turn what has historically been treated as waste into a strategic energy asset,” Sheehan said. He added that the technology could reduce the need for frequent battery replacement in critical systems.

Defense and space potential

Northrop Grumman will contribute expertise in microelectronics, radiation effects, modeling, and system survivability. The company plans to use advanced computing tools to accelerate design work and evaluate performance under demanding conditions. According to Northrop Grumman, the technology could support future defense systems that require dependable power in locations where traditional energy sources cannot operate effectively.

The SYMPHONEE project reflects growing interest in compact nuclear energy technologies that can deliver continuous power over extended periods. If the team achieves its goals, the program could help establish a new generation of long-life energy systems for defense, aerospace, and industrial applications.