Palladyne AI Corp. (NASDAQ: PDYN and PDYNW) (“Palladyne AI”), a U.S.-based defense and industrial technology company delivering embodied AI-powered collaborative autonomy solutions, advanced avionics, precision-manufactured components, UAVs, and advanced aerospace engineering services, today announced the successful flight test ofIntelliSwarm, the integrated autonomy stack combining its SwarmOS autonomy software with its BRAIN X2 Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) flight computer, demonstrated for the first time on Palladyne Defense’s Banshee loitering munition platform and in autonomous collaboration with Red Cat (NASDAQ: RCAT) drone platforms.
Ben Wolff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Palladyne AI, commented: “IntelliSwarm is flight-proven technology today – not a future concept. This successful integration fundamentally changes what’s possible and economically viable in AI-enabled unmanned systems. Demonstrating IntelliSwarm on our Banshee platform, while collaborating with Red Cat drone platforms, showcases our vertical integration, rapid execution, and commitment to delivering battlefield advantages. For defense customers and UAV manufacturers, IntelliSwarm provides the foundational autonomy layer to accelerate next-generation swarming while reducing costs, speeding deployment, and enabling decisive edge performance in denied domains.”
This milestone represents the inaugural flight of Palladyne AI’s IntelliSwarm autonomy stack, deployed on its proprietary Banshee mini-bomber UAV concept, which autonomously collaborated with drones from Red Cat. Building on prior SwarmOS demonstrations with third-party UAV platforms, this test validates the combined, tamper-proof edge-AI solution in a real world, heterogeneous multi-vehicle scenario and represents a pivotal step in advancing both IntelliSwarm and Banshee towards operational readiness.
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Download free sample pages More informationIntelliSwarm results from the rapid, three-week integration of Palladyne AI’s patented SwarmOS autonomy software with its NDAA-compliant BRAIN X2 edge-AI avionics. By integrating GNC with autonomous swarming capabilities into a single, unified stack that embeds perception, decision-making, flight control, and coordinated behavior at the edge, Palladyne Defense is delivering real-time performance in GPS- and communications-denied environments.
Unlike centralized command or homogeneous fleet approaches, IntelliSwarm enables platforms from different manufacturers with varying roles, payloads, and performance characteristics, to autonomously operate as intelligent, collaborative peers within a secure mesh network. This decentralized design supports graceful degradation, mission resilience, alignment with DoD open-systems requirements, robust security, and operator oversight.
Palladyne Defense’s Banshee is a next-generation reusable mini-bomber UAV concept purpose-built for modern contested warfare, emphasizing autonomy, affordability, and resilience. It provides precision effects with a cost per effect that is substantially lower, while offering greater autonomy, reusability and mission resilience,than low-cost FPV (First Person View) drones.
“By natively integrating SwarmOS with BRAIN X2 we’ve created a seamless stack for embodied intelligence, precise flight control, and heterogeneous coordination,” said Dr. Denis Garagic, Chief Technology Officer of Palladyne AI. “This allows platforms of any design, mission, or origin to function as a unified, adaptive force—achieving levels of interoperability and resilience that were previously out of reach.”
Palladyne AI expects IntelliSwarm to serve as a core building block for current and future unmanned programs, with plans to make it available to other UAS and attritable munitions OEMs once fully tested and commercialized. Every UAV or attritable munition equipped with IntelliSwarm will seamlessly communicate with others as part of a collaborative autonomous network, enhancing scalability and operational effectiveness across diverse systems.
