# MQ-9 Reaper vs Shield AI V-BAT in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

| Attribute | [MQ-9 Reaper](/consumer/models/ga-mq-9-reaper) | [Shield AI V-BAT](/consumer/models/shield-ai-v-bat) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Manufacturer** | [General Atomics Aeronautical Systems](/companies/general-atomics) | [Shield AI](/companies/shield-ai) |
| **Form factor** | aerial | aerial |
| **Maturity** | production | production |
| **Availability** | enterprise | enterprise |
| **Price** | $20,000,000-$32,000,000 (actual sale price) | Not announced |
| **Capability claims** | — | 2: flight in GPS- and communications-denied environments (autonomous); Multi-drone autonomous team operations (autonomous) |
| **Brain** | — | [Shield AI Hivemind](/brains/hivemind) (foundation-model) |
| **Verified deployments** | 4 | 3 |
| **Privacy practices** | — | — |
| **Sources on file** | 11 | 13 |

_Canonical: https://deploy.report/compare/ga-mq-9-reaper-vs-shield-ai-v-bat_

## Common questions

### What is the difference between MQ-9 Reaper and Shield AI V-BAT?

MQ-9 Reaper and Shield AI V-BAT are both aerial robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

### Is MQ-9 Reaper or Shield AI V-BAT more autonomous?

Shield AI V-BAT has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous on the DEPLOY registry than MQ-9 Reaper. DEPLOY counts a capability as autonomous only when verified at a real deployment, not from a demo or a vendor claim.

### Which has more verified deployments, MQ-9 Reaper or Shield AI V-BAT?

MQ-9 Reaper has more verified deployments (4) on the DEPLOY registry than Shield AI V-BAT (3). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.


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