Helsing

The close partnership between HENSOLDT and Helsing on the development of the CA-1 Europa is progressing rapidly, with several key milestones already reached. Manufacturing of the V-tail empennage is complete, the main components of the wings have been produced, the fuselage moulds are finished, and the engines are ready to be fitted. Last week, Oliver Dörre, CEO of Hensoldt, and Stephanie Lingemann, Vice President Air at Helsing, briefed German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius on progress. And today, Hensoldt has announced that its new missile warning system, CAIRAS, will be integrated on board the CA-1 Europa. CAIRAS is an infrared reconnaissance and alert system that strengthens the self-protection capability of the unmanned combat aircraft. 

Helsing welcomes Andriy Shevchenko as Managing Director for Ukraine.  Andriy is Ukraine's former Ambassador to Canada and Deputy Minister of Defence. He will lead Helsing's growing team in Ukraine as the company scales its operations in the country.  Helsing has been active in Ukraine since 2022. Thousands of HX-2s, Helsing's AI-enabled strike drone, have been deployed to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2026 alone.

Helsing is expanding its U.S. presence and has selected the State of West Virginia as the site of our first U.S. Resilience Factory.  The new factory will build our software-defined loitering munition HX-2. Thousands of HX-2s are currently deployed on the battlefield in Ukraine. The drone has recently been successfully tested by the U.S. Army in the exercise “Flytrap” in Lithuania.  Through this expansion, we aim to strengthen America’s defence industrial capacity, create high skilled jobs, and deepen cooperation between Europe and the U.S. while ensuring that European defence AI has a seat at the table in the world's most consequential defence market.  Thank you to West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey and everyone in the state of West Virginia who made this milestone possible.

Helsing, Europe's leading defence AI company, today announces it has raised $1.8bn in a Series E, valuing the company at US$18bn. New and existing investors participated in the round, including Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Disruptive, ICONIQ, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorganChase, CPP Investments | Investissements RPC, General Catalyst, Plural, and StepStone Group. Investor demand significantly exceeded the available allocation, reflecting strong and growing confidence in AI-driven and software-defined defence technology. The company remains predominantly European-owned, underscoring its deep roots in Europe. The Board of Helsing remains unchanged with Co-Chairmen Daniel Ek and Tom Enders, and members Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Denis Mercier, alongside the company's founders. This latest investment will accelerate Helsing's mission to develop and integrate entirely new AI platforms into the defence capabilities of its growing number of partner nations. Helsing's existing investors include Prima Materia, Accel, and Greenoaks.

As Helsing scales, we need engineers who can both write complex code and troubleshoot live in the field. That’s why we have just hosted a two-day field trial at our Grob Aircraft airfield in Bavaria for the Formula Student international competition.   During the first Helsing Engineering Airfield Takedown (HEAT), we brought together several Formula Student teams including three backed by Helsing: AMZ Racing, TUfast e.V. Racing Team, and KA-RaceIng e.V. Working against the clock, the teams repeatedly stripped down and rebuilt their autonomous racing cars between races. This required the students to address the kinds of engineering challenges we see every day in building modern defence technology. We call it deployed engineering, and it is some of the hardest and most important work we do. Events like HEAT help us find the next generation of top European talent. We are expanding our deployed engineering teams. Keep an eye on our jobs page, and read more about HEAT on our blog. Links below in comments. 

At ILA Berlin - Pioneering Aerospace, Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Helsing and learned about the CA-1 Europa platform. Dr. Gundbert Scherf presented not only the full-size design study of the aircraft but also the first wing – currently under construction in our production facility – as well as the platform's newest addition, the CA-1 Electronic Attack, which will protect attacking swarms of aircraft from ground-based air defence systems.      We also welcomed State Secretaries Nils Hilmer and Jens Ploetner the chairmen of the budget committee in the Bundestag, Andreas Mattfeldt and Andreas Schwarz, Vice-Admiral Carsten Stawitzki, Flotilla Admiral Christian Bock, Bavarian State Minister Florian Herrmann, and a large number of interested officers, friends, partners and customers – both at our exhibition stand and at our Fly-In Dinner at the Humboldt Forum. Thank you to all our guests; we are already looking forward to the next ILA.

Today at ILA Berlin, Helsing is introducing CA-1EA, an electronic attack variant of the autonomous fighter jet CA-1.  Offensive electronic warfare measures can blind enemy radars to protect pilots and aircraft. CA-1EA is designed to clear a safe path for allied aircraft – both manned and unmanned – to execute their missions, even in the most contested environments.  CA-1EA is the second variant of the CA-1 Europa platform, after the 2025 announcement of the original CA-1 designed for kinetic attack (KA). The standardised design across both variants keeps production and maintenance costs low, simplifies manufacturing, and facilitates operator training. This allows the CA-1 platform to be expanded further and flexibly tailored to the requirements of European air forces.

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Frank Dirksen as Chief Commercial Officer at Helsing. Frank brings deep experience in the defence industry. At Rheinmetall, he held a range of senior leadership positions, including CEO and Country Lead of Rheinmetall South Africa. Earlier in his career, he worked as a management consultant. Frank also served in the German Armed Forces for 15 years, giving him first-hand understanding of what armed forces require. Frank will further strengthen Helsing's commercial capabilities as we continue to expand internationally. 

The next frontier is advanced robotics. Introducing RX-1, Helsing's robotic experimental platform. Developed by Area 9 – Helsing's advanced research division – RX-1 is a large, fully vertically integrated quadrupedal platform built for speed, robustness, and outdoor use. Area 9 is using RX-1 for its own advanced robotics AI research, but from today, we are making RX-1 units available to selected academic labs and research institutions across Europe.  We are proud to reveal that the first academic partnerships are with two of the leading robotics labs in Europe: Marco Hutter's team at ETH Zürich and Inria in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt. Together, we will deploy RX-1 to accelerate research at the intersection of AI and autonomous systems. Marco Hutter, ETH, says: "RX-1 is an advanced, European-developed hardware platform enabling exciting field robotics research. We look forward to collaborating with Antoine's team at Area 9 to push outdoor autonomy." Antoine Bordes, Chief Scientist, Helsing, says: "RX-1 is designed in Europe and manufactured in Europe, including crucial components as our in-house designed actuators. Our robotics team has created a platform that is exceptionally strong, can withstand the elements, and will serve as a research platform across multiple teams in Europe."