The company announced the system at Modern Day Marine on April 28 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. AeroVironment said the platform is designed to protect borders, military installations and other high-value sites in the United States and allied nations.
The company described Halo_Shield as part of its broader counter-unmanned aircraft strategy. The system is designed to predict, detect, track, identify and defeat airborne threats ranging from Group 1 through Group 5 drones to coordinated drone swarms.
AeroVironment said the platform can also counter subsonic cruise missiles. The company added that Halo_Shield is already being demonstrated and has been deployed at selected critical locations.
“The character of the air threat has fundamentally changed,” said Wahid Nawabi.
“Cheap, massed, and coordinated aerial systems are stressing traditional point defenses,” Nawabi added. “Halo_Shield is our answer—a collaborative, modular approach that brings together the best of AV and a trusted supplier ecosystem to close those gaps.”
The system is built around a tile-based architecture that includes Sentinel, Terrestrial, Nautical, Aerial and Celestial components. AeroVironment said each tile combines sensors, weapons systems and command-and-control capabilities tailored to specific missions.
The company said the architecture is designed to provide wider coverage than traditional point-defense systems. Officials said it allows operators to extend protection across air, land, sea and space domains.
Halo_Shield is designed for plug-and-play integration and can be deployed through portable fly-away kits. AeroVironment said the system can also integrate with existing customer sensors, weapons and command systems.
The platform is powered by AV_Halo, which allows operators to manage multiple systems through a unified command structure. The company said the platform can also integrate future capabilities as threats evolve.
“Halo_Shield is engineered like an edge processing-capable set of tiles for modern air defense,” said Larry Lloyd.
“Each tile is a self-contained capability that can operate on its own or snap together to build exactly the defense architecture a mission demands,” Lloyd added.
“That modularity lets operators scale, adapt, and reconfigure in real time as threats evolve, without redesigning the system or retraining the force,” he said. “It’s how you move from static point defense to a living, mission-tailored shield.”
The system incorporates several existing AeroVironment products, including the LOCUST, Switchblade and Titan 4. The company said the architecture is designed to improve detection ranges, accelerate response times and expand defensive coverage across large operational areas.
