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European defence technology start-up Helsing has unveiled its first attack drone as the AI specialist seeks to capitalise on rising demand for autonomous weapons driven by the war in Ukraine.
The company is pitching its new drone, which is already being used in Ukraine, to the UK and other Nato allies. Helsing says it can produce tens of thousands of the AI-enabled drones a year at a lower cost than existing systems, using advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing.
Nato “urgently requires technology to protect the integrity of the eastern flank”, said Gundbert Scherf, co-founder of Helsing, in reference to the military alliance’s members in eastern and central Europe.
The company believes that if deployed at scale along borders then the new drones, dubbed HX-2, will be able to act as a “counter-invasion shield” against enemy forces on the ground.
Ukraine has underlined the shift in modern warfare from the use of traditional hardware such as tanks, guns and munitions to more software-defined technologies, in particular autonomous systems, to enable troops to outsmart the enemy.
One of the challenges Ukraine’s armed forces have encountered is Russian electromagnetic jamming, which disrupts GPS and communications between drones and their operators.
Helsing said its HX-2 drones, which are able to fly up to 100km, will be equipped with software that will enable them to search for, re-identify and engage targets even without a signal or a continuous data connection. A human operator will retain control at all times.
Helsing, founded in 2021, was valued at €4.95bn during its latest funding round in the summer, which was led by General Catalyst and included Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The company has pledged to set up a manufacturing facility in the UK as part of a £350mn investment in the country over the next five years
Helsing hopes to emerge as one of the winners from the British government’s strategic defence review and plans for a new defence industrial strategy, which aims to include input from technology companies as well as the industry’s traditional giants.
Defence secretary John Healey, unveiling the plans for the new strategy on Monday, said the government needed to learn the lessons from Ukraine where the “pace of innovation is measured in weeks, not months”.
Helsing has already signed partnership deals with some of Europe’s established defence contractors, including Germany’s Rheinmetall and Sweden’s Saab, to integrate AI into existing platforms such as fighter jets. The start-up is also working with Airbus on AI technologies that will be used in manned and unmanned systems.
