No runway, no problem. According to Shield AI, with a one-way range of approximately 700 nautical miles, its V-BAT uncrewed vertical takeoff and landing system delivers agile, affordable, and persistent maritime domain awareness.

The tyranny of distance defines the Pacific, serving so often as a buffer, offering security against the threats faced by many others around the world. However, that security is slowly being eroded by the proliferation of new technologies to defeat traditional border security defences.

The discovery of low-observable and semi-submersible vessels for illicit activities is allowing drug smugglers to drastically increase the importation of narcotics into New Zealand and Australia. Recent reports indicate a 266% increase in the quantity of methamphetamine seized in New Zealand and offshore over the last five years.

Similarly, rates of incursions into the region’s respective economic exclusion zones highlight the need for increased maritime domain awareness for all Pacific nations. As geopolitical competitors and other threat actors are adopting and harnessing emerging technologies, so too must we adapt at the speed of relevance to protect ourselves.

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These new technologies need to be acquired and deployed with speed and intent. They need to be employed in a distributed nature, not reliant on fixed locations, allowing for adaptability and deployability.

Persistent maritime domain awareness has become indispensable in the Pacific, where distances are vast and operational challenges significant. In this context, uncrewed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) systems, such as the Shield AI V-BAT, offer a proven, cost-effective solution to strengthen sovereign surveillance, deter illicit activity, and accelerate responses to emerging threats.

As a VTOL unmanned aerial system (UAS), V-BAT provides a combination of flexibility, endurance, and ease of deployment that traditional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems cannot match. Its tail-sitting, ducted-fan design requires only a 4.6 x 4.6 metre pad, allowing operations from small naval vessels, cutters, civilian ships, or austere shore sites without the need for runways.

“This combination of deploy-anywhere flexibility, long-endurance coverage, and advanced sensing gives the V-BAT the ability to deliver high-impact ISR at a fraction of the cost of runway-dependent systems.”

The enclosed rotor system and precision autonomous controls enable safe and automated launch and recovery on crowded decks and in winds up to 25 knots, making it ideal for maritime environments where space and conditions are often challenging.

This compact design translates into simple logistics. The entire system packs into transit cases that can be transported by ute or helicopter; a two-person team can assemble and launch the aircraft in under 30 minutes. Precision autonomous flight management further lightens operator workload, enabling crews to focus on mission execution rather than aircraft handling.

V-BAT’s performance is driven by its endurance and range, ideal for Pacific environments. With more than 12+ hours of flight time and a one-way range of approximately 700 nautical miles, it can patrol well beyond a host vessel’s visual horizon.

Powered by a heavy-fuel engine, V-BAT transforms maritime operations, supporting persistent monitoring of smuggling routes and remote atolls, maintaining awareness over vast ocean areas, and providing real-time intelligence to cue maritime patrol aircraft or interdiction teams.

Equally important is the platform’s sensor versatility. With an 18-kg payload capacity, the V-BAT supports high-resolution EO/IR cameras, synthetic aperture radar, Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers, and advanced detection tools such as Shield AI’s ViDAR.

“For New Zealand, adopting a common VTOL UAS across both the Royal New Zealand Navy and the New Zealand Customs Service would create immediate advantages delivering meaningful capability without an exquisite price tag.”

A wide-area motion imagery system, ViDAR autonomously scans thousands of square nautical miles per hour, identifying small vessels or subtle wakes that human observers could easily miss. Once an object of interest is detected, the system immediately geolocates it and streams imagery to command centres, enabling rapid and accurate interdiction.

This combination of deploy-anywhere flexibility, long-endurance coverage, and advanced sensing gives the V-BAT the ability to deliver high-impact ISR at a fraction of the cost of runway-dependent systems. For maritime forces tasked with monitoring vast areas on limited budgets, it offers a practical and scalable way to increase domain awareness, strengthen deterrence, and respond quickly to emerging threats.

A proven solution

Under a $198 million contract awarded by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) in 2024, V-BAT have delivered persistent ISR deployed aboard National Security Cutters. Operational deployments have proven highly successful, providing continuous surveillance of suspicious vessels, improving cueing for interdiction teams, and ultimately enabling faster, more effective maritime operations.

The results speak for themselves. In 2025 alone, the Coast Guard attributed more than US$1 billion in narcotics seizures to V-BAT-enabled operations.

“A drone that can travel around a thousand nautical miles… can do the work of ten cutters,” stated Anthony Antognoli, the U.S. Coast Guard’s program executive officer for robotics and autonomous systems. While that comparison may seem bold, Shield AI’s V-BAT has already proven it.

From delivering electronic-warfare–resilient ISR in Ukraine, to assisting wildfire response efforts in Bulgaria, to being the first-ever maritime-based ISR platform to be deployed on Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force surface vessels, V-BAT continues to prove its versatility and reliability in some of the world’s most demanding operational environments.

For New Zealand, adopting a common VTOL UAS across both the Royal New Zealand Navy and the New Zealand Customs Service would create immediate advantages delivering meaningful capability without an exquisite price tag.

Offshore patrol vessels could deploy V-BAT detachments for fisheries protection, illegal entry detection, and enhanced search-and-rescue coverage. Meanwhile, Customs could operate the same platform from chartered vessels to counter drug-trafficking networks exploiting Pacific transit routes. Shared training, maintenance, and data practices would generate powerful interagency synergies and reduce costs, strengthening the country’s maritime security posture.

As Antognoli said, “It is impossible to do that work with humans and patrol cutters alone.”

These examples only hint at the broader potential. In practice, integrating compact, ship-deployable VTOL drones like the V-BAT across New Zealand’s maritime forces would fundamentally enhance the nation’s defence posture, enabling agile, affordable, and persistent protection of its waters and those of its Pacific partners.