Shield AI Unveils ViDAR Pod: A Passive, Multi-Domain Wide-Area Surveillance System

Shield AI, the deep-tech company building state-of-the-art autonomy software products and defense aircraft, today announced the launch of the ViDAR Pod — a next-generation AI-enabled Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) system that delivers persistent wide-area airborne surveillance across both land and maritime domains, a capability previously only achievable with radar.  

“For too long, detection at scale has been dominated by radar, but ViDAR changes that paradigm,” said Christian Gutierrez, Vice President of Hivemind Solutions at Shield AI. “As modern battlefields become more contested, platforms must detect, locate, classify, and track threats without relying on active emissions. With real-time, passive optical tracking across both land and sea, ViDAR delivers persistent surveillance at a fraction of the size, weight, and power—without emitting a signal—giving operators a critical advantage in covert operations.”

The ViDAR Pod features a compact 60-centimeter tube form factor, initially available as a single underbelly pod with multi-spectral cameras and an integrated processor, a separate inertial measurement unit and industry standard mounting options, as required. Its camera configuration and AI analytics allow for multi-domain detection within a single pod, providing day and night coverage and flexibility across mission sets.  

Key Capabilities

• Real-time, passive wide-area surveillance for both land and maritime domains
• Day, low-light and night detection of stationary and moving targets
• Outperforms in terms of land and maritime coverage when compared to sensors in a similar weight class
• Detects, locates, and classifies a wide range of hard-to-spot, high-value land and maritime threats, including moving dismounts, vehicles, stationary targets, dark vessels (boats with AIS turned off), fast boats, illegal fishing boats, patrol boats, semi-submersibles, and larger vessels

Designed for Group 3 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the ViDAR Pod is also suitable for rotary and small fixed-wing aircraft, complementing radar by reliably detecting targets with low radar cross section, enabling persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), targeting, and force protection across multiple mission platforms.

Visitors to the U.S. Navy League Sea-Air-Space Maritime Expo in National Harbor, Maryland, next week can stop by Shield AI’s booth (#1101) to learn more about the ViDAR Pod and how Shield AI is advancing autonomous aircraft for maritime operations.