Engineers at GE Aerospace's Edison Works division in Evendale have successfully fired up the engine that will let an uncrewed combat jet take off and land without a runway.

GE Aerospace and San Diego-based Shield AI announced July 20, that they completed integration and engine light-off testing of an advanced thrust-vectoring nozzle for Shield AI's X-BAT aircraft at GE Aerospace's test site in Peebles, Ohio. The milestone clears the path toward vertical flight testing later in 2026, according to the companies.

The test marks the first fully integrated campaign of the Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle, or AVEN, since the 1990s. Engineers from both companies modified and fitted the nozzle onto GE Aerospace's F110-GE-129E engine, then ran functional checkouts and lit the engine to verify performance.

"The integration of AVEN into our F110-GE-129E engine and a successful light off represents a full-circle moment for our GE Aerospace team," said Doogie Russell, vice president of Edison Works at GE Aerospace. "By combining our proven experience in developing propulsion systems with Shield AI's next-generation vehicle development, we are integrating the best of past, present, and future products to create a revolutionary aircraft."

The AVEN nozzle is what allows X-BAT to point its engine exhaust straight down for vertical takeoff and landing. The hardware originally flew on an F-16 in the 1990s, logging 73 hours of ground testing and 135 flight hours across 95 flights before being shelved. GE Aerospace refurbished the nozzle and adapted it for the X-BAT program, which demands faster gimbaling to maintain attitude control during vertical flight.

Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft engineering at Shield AI, said the vertical-flight capability "lives or dies with propulsion" and that reusing flight-proven hardware let the team move at speed instead of starting from scratch.

Shield AI selected GE Aerospace in November 2025 to provide the engine, propulsion integration, and testing support for X-BAT. The F110 engine family has logged more than 11 million flight hours and marked 40 years of continuous production, according to GE Aerospace.

X-BAT is an AI-piloted strike fighter that can operate from ships, islands, or remote sites. It carries weapons up to the 2,000-pound class internally, generates 80 kilowatts of electrical power for electronic warfare suites, and has a combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles, according to the companies' joint announcement.

The nozzle is now undergoing additional ground testing at Peebles ahead of flight testing aboard the X-BAT prototype, which the companies target for the end of 2026.