A Cambridge-based AI startup successfully intercepted a replica of the Iranian-designed Shahed-type long-range one-way attack drone in mid-air during a U.S. military test event in Indiana earlier this month, using a small, high-speed vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can be built at low cost and operated without a persistent communications link.
Tycho.AI’s Halley Group 1 VTOL uncrewed aerial system completed 39 evaluated test flights at the Technology Readiness Experimentation event known as T-REX 26-2, held at Camp Atterbury, Indiana from May 4 to 15, demonstrating both counter-drone interception and one-way attack capability against a ground target in the same exercise.
The Shahed replica interception is the detail that anchors the entire demonstration in operational reality. The Shahed-136, the loitering munition that Iran supplied to Russia in large quantities for use against Ukrainian infrastructure and military targets, has become one of the most strategically significant cheap weapons of the current era, capable of striking targets hundreds of kilometers from launch with enough accuracy to destroy power substations, fuel depots, and command facilities. Ukraine and its partners have spent enormous effort developing ways to shoot it down, with everything from fighter jets to modified anti-aircraft guns pressed into service as interceptors. A small, fast, low-cost VTOL that can autonomously intercept a Shahed replica represents a qualitatively different answer to that problem, one that matches the cost structure of the threat rather than countering a cheap weapon with an expensive one.
Halley reached a maximum speed of 165 miles per hour during the T-REX exercise, operated at altitudes ranging from 9 to 10,000 feet, and completed a maximum flight distance of 35 kilometers. Those numbers define the operational envelope of a Group 1 UAS, the classification covering unmanned aircraft weighing under 20 pounds, flying below 1,200 feet in standard operation at speeds under 100 knots. Halley’s 165 mph top speed pushes well above the typical Group 1 performance ceiling, which is precisely what makes aerial interception of fast-moving threats plausible for a platform in this size and cost class.
Sertac Karaman, Tycho.AI’s founder, described what the T-REX results confirmed: “Halley’s performance validates that our vision for a small, fast, agile tactical UAS is not just theoretical; it is ready for the battlefield. T-REX provided the perfect venue to demonstrate Halley’s versatility across multiple mission sets and its direct effectiveness against modern adversarial threats.”
The T-REX program itself is worth understanding as context for what passing it means. Technology Readiness Experimentation events are run by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering to evaluate emerging technologies in operationally representative conditions, providing a structured path for small companies and new systems to demonstrate capability to military evaluators without going through the full formal acquisition process. Passing T-REX does not automatically result in a contract, but it places a technology in front of the right decision-makers with documented performance evidence rather than vendor claims, and it establishes a Technology Readiness Level that acquisition officials use to assess how close a system is to fielding. Halley achieved Technology Readiness Level 6 following the exercise, meaning the system has been demonstrated in a relevant environment, the threshold that separates laboratory-validated technology from field-validated capability.
The cyber evaluation Halley passed alongside the flight demonstrations addresses a vulnerability that has proven decisive in drone-heavy conflicts. Electronic warfare systems designed to intercept, jam, or spoof drone control links have become a standard feature of modern contested environments, and a drone that can be hijacked, blinded, or grounded by an adversary’s electronic attack is a liability rather than an asset once it enters enemy-controlled airspace. Tycho.AI’s approach to this problem uses AI-enabled onboard processing to maintain navigation and operation without requiring a persistent communications link, meaning the aircraft can continue executing its mission even when jammed. The company also developed a video stream compression technique that maintains navigation-quality visual data over a low-bandwidth link in communication-degraded environments, transmitting it with encryption that the company says renders the feed uninterpretable to any system that intercepts it.
That autonomous resilience in GPS-denied and communications-contested environments is the capability that distinguishes Halley from simpler FPV drones of the type that have proliferated in Ukraine. A standard FPV drone is cheap and fast but depends on a live video feed and operator control link that sophisticated adversaries can disrupt. Halley’s onboard AI, developed by engineers from MIT, is designed to execute missions without that dependency, which makes the platform viable in the high-end threat environments where peer competitors have invested most heavily in electronic countermeasures.
The Automatic Target Recognition capability demonstrated at T-REX adds another layer of operational relevance. ATR allows the system to identify and classify targets autonomously based on visual data, reducing the operator workload required to execute engagements and enabling faster responses in time-critical scenarios. Combined with the video stream tokenization technology that keeps the feed secure and functional under bandwidth constraints, the system presents a coherent picture of how Tycho.AI has approached the electronic vulnerability problem that has grounded or compromised so many drone programs when they encounter real-world jamming.
Tycho.AI’s next steps are now focused on validating autonomous flight, integrating a kinetic payload, and accelerating the transition to full-scale production. The company launched Halley publicly at SOF Week 2026 in Tampa the last week the T-REX results were announced, timing that places the platform directly in front of the special operations community that has historically been the earliest adopter of new unmanned capabilities within the U.S. military.
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