Munich company Helsing is making progress on an AI-controlled fighter jet

The Munich-based drone and software manufacturer Helsing says it has made great progress in the development of its unmanned fighter jet. At a demonstration for Digital Minister Karsten Freiberger (CDU) in Munich, the AI-controlled machine won several air battles against real pilots in the simulation. “What you have achieved in five or six years is phenomenal,” said the politician. Helsing is aiming for the first test flight next year.

The company, founded in 2021, now employs around 1,300 people, according to the company, around seven times as many as in 2024. The heart of the drone jet is an AI pilot called “Centaur”. During the demonstration, two pilots - a former Bundeswehr pilot and long-time test pilot as well as a former Mexican Air Force pilot - competed against "Centaur" and lost several times. The system is therefore also being tested in real fighter aircraft.

“Synthetic AI” makes development much faster

According to Chief Technology Officer Robert Fink, Helsing has greatly accelerated the development process because the machine is now also “trained” in synthetically generated environments and the simulation no longer relies on real data from real military images of the earth's surface, enemy aircraft, the weather, wind conditions, etc.

Instead, users enter the desired parameters, from terrain to time of day and visibility, and the “synthetic AI” then generates these environments. “Decades of training shrink to just a few minutes or hours,” said Fink. Synthetic AI is a variant of artificial intelligence. “With regard to images and language, it is already being used successfully and regularly.” Helsing therefore transferred the technology to the military.

Helsing: No danger to the outside world

The Helsing leadership emphasized that the company's AI could not cause any damage to external computer systems. The Helsing software therefore does not have the ability to break out of its limited military environment. Unlike the AI ​​models from American start-ups that have been widely discussed in the media, Helsing's synthetic training AI does not have all the capabilities of a computer, said Fink.

Helsing is no longer one of the start-ups, but rather one of the so-called Neo Primes - these are software-centered young companies that compete with the large, established defense companies. In the most recent financing round in July, the company raised $1.8 billion from investors. In June 2025, Helsing took over the Bavarian aviation company Grob, which specializes in the development of lightweight aircraft, and whose engineers are now developing the actual aircraft. The machine will be eleven meters long and have a take-off weight of four tons.