Reconnaissance drones for Armenia: Washington delivers Shield AI's V-BAT to Yerevan

V-BAT reconnaissance drones made by Shield AI are going from Washington to Yerevan. The agreement is worth around 11 million US dollars (about 10 million euros) – and it is the first time that the US has officially announced a major arms deal with Armenia.

It was preceded by talks that US Vice President J.D. Vance recently held in Yerevan with Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

This delivery is far more than just another drone type. With the V-BAT, the Armenian Armed Forces are receiving for the first time a Western system that has already proven itself in combat and is used by the US armed forces as well as several partners.

Russian arms deliveries are declining and Armenia is gradually realigning its security policy – against this background, the agreement is seen as a signal of growing defence cooperation with the US. It shows that procurement sources are being further diversified and points to a structural transformation of Armenia's defence architecture.

In Armenia's mountainous operating environment, the system offers operational advantages. Thanks to its “tail-sitter” design, it can take off and land vertically on very small areas (at least 2.5 × 2.5 metres) – an advantage in hard-to-reach terrain or near the line of contact.

Reconnaissance drones from Texas, soon from India too

The V-BAT was developed by the US company Shield AI; it is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) reconnaissance drone. It is used by units of the US Department of Defense such as the Marine Corps, the Navy and special forces. It is also in service or being trialled in, among others, Greece, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. The platform has also been flying under combat conditions in Ukraine since 2024.

Shield AI currently produces around 200 systems a year in Texas. An additional production line in India will expand capacity: under a technology partnership (ToT), the Indian group JSW Defence is investing around 90 million US dollars (about 83 million euros) in an assembly and test facility in Hyderabad. Production is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2026.