Honeywell and Shield AI Partner on Certifiable Autonomy Stack

Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 22, 2026, at the Farnborough International Airshow to develop a certifiable autonomy software stack for defense and commercial aircraft.

Announced in a joint press release, the collaboration targets a primary hurdle in uncrewed and autonomous aviation: regulatory Certification. By integrating Honeywell’s certified aerospace hardware with Shield AI’s mission autonomy Software, the companies intend to create a standardized foundation that eliminates the need to rebuild and recertify trust architectures for every new aircraft platform.

Integrating Anthem Avionics with Hivemind autonomy

The agreement centers on pairing the Honeywell Anthem avionics, navigation, and sensing portfolio with the Shield AI Hivemind Software Development Kit (SDK). Hivemind provides artificial intelligence-piloted flight capabilities, while Anthem supplies the design-assured hardware foundation required by aviation regulators.

This combined architecture is designed to support both defense and commercial applications, allowing operators to deploy autonomous systems across various uncrewed aircraft platforms without engineering bespoke hardware solutions for each vehicle.

“Honeywell Aerospace’s certified avionics, navigation, and sensing systems paired with Hivemind, which delivers mission autonomy for intelligent, collaborative operations, create a trusted foundation for AI-piloted flight,” said Gary Steele, Chief Executive Officer of Shield AI. “This collaboration reflects how the aerospace and defense ecosystem is evolving, bringing the best of autonomy and certified hardware to address transportation and national security challenges.”

Addressing the certification bottleneck

The aerospace industry faces persistent challenges in certifying artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. Regulators require strict design assurance before allowing autonomous systems to operate in shared airspace or complex military environments.

Honeywell Aerospace (Nasdaq: HONA) aims to bridge this gap by providing the certified hardware layer that regulators already recognize, enabling Shield AI’s software to operate within an approved safety envelope.

“Autonomy software can fly an aircraft, but trust has to be engineered into the architecture, not bolted on after,” said Matt Milas, President of Defense & Space at Honeywell Aerospace. “Our role is to build the certified, design-assured foundation that lets a warfighter, a regulator and a fleet operator all trust the same platform. That’s the layer we bring to this collaboration, the one that turns intelligence like Hivemind into something that can be deployed safely and at scale anywhere in the world.”

AirPro News analysis

The partnership between Honeywell and Shield AI highlights a critical maturation point
Photo Credit: Honeywell Aerospace