The US Coast Guard has ordered $61.4 million of V-BAT drone services from Shield AI across 12 orders, federal spending records show. The contract’s ceiling, with all options, is $229.3 million, and ordering runs to September 2029.
The Puerto Rico order, signed on 2 March for shore-based V-BAT flights, stands at $16.03 million. Its end date has moved from 26 June to 31 December 2026. The records do not say why.
Guam and new sensors
Two more orders followed. On 27 May the Coast Guard ordered $8.44 million for a shore-based expansion to Guam, running to the end of the year. On 1 October it ordered $4.72 million to add sensors to current and future V-BAT flights, through September 2027.
Other orders pay for installing V-BAT on the national security cutters, the service’s largest ships. Shield AI announced the contract in July 2024 at $198.1 million.
ScanEagle’s contract ended
The cutters flew Insitu’s ScanEagle before. Insitu, a Boeing company, held a $96.1 million contract from June 2018 to equip them with drones. It ended on 5 June 2026, and the records show no extension.
V-BAT takes off and lands vertically, so it needs no runway or launcher. In November 2025 a V-BAT from the cutter Stone spotted three vessels in a seizure of 12,000 pounds of cocaine with seven arrests, Defense News reported.
