Helsing’s presence at Enforce Tac 2026 placed the company’s AI enabled systems in a setting that traditionally focuses on law enforcement and internal security users. By bringing a HX-2 Drone Operator Trainer to Nuremberg, Helsing presented its approach to training operators for software defined, AI supported warfare to an audience that included police special units, internal security agencies and military representatives.

For a firm already active in support of Ukraine and involved in several European modernisation initiatives, the event offered a platform to address questions at the boundary between external defence and internal security, including grey zone threats and potential spill over of high end conflict dynamics into domestic security concerns.

According to company spokespersons, Helsing used Enforce Tac to underline three themes: the dual use character it ascribes to many of its AI and autonomy technologies, the continued role of human operators in its systems and the idea of a software centric backbone that can be applied across different military and security organisations.

At the stand, representatives highlighted human in the loop control, the need to train operators who understand both the strengths and limitations of AI-supported systems, and the importance of connecting new capabilities into existing command and control and sensor networks. In this context, the company also presented itself as part of a wider ecosystem of defence and security actors experimenting with AI-enabled capabilities, rather than as a stand alone provider.

HX-2: simulator and operator training

At Enforce Tac 2026, Helsing highlighted a HX-2 Drone Operator Trainer linked to its autonomous loitering munition, which the company presents as already deployed in combat in Ukraine. According to Helsing representatives, the trainer is intended to shorten initial training time, support decision making under pressure, strengthen mission planning skills, familiarise operators with system limitations and maintain human control over engagements. In this sense, the system is used to illustrate the company’s stated approach, in particular using AI to automate parts of the reconnaissance strike cycle while keeping engagement authority with human operators.

The trainer is described as using a simulation environment that can represent different operational settings, varied target sets, contested electromagnetic conditions and degraded weather and visibility, combined with tools for structured after action review. Helsing’s aim is for users to rehearse both relatively simple strike profiles and scenarios in GPS denied or heavily jammed environments, which the company links to recent operational experience in Ukraine. The operator interface adopts gaming inspired ergonomics, with an emphasis on intuitive controls, clear information hierarchies and several autonomy modes, allowing operators to move between highly assisted and more manual control as procedures and confidence develop.

ALTRA integration and recon strike workflow

Helsing states that the HX-2 trainer is integrated with its ALTRA reconnaissance strike software platform, so that training scenarios can be run in a wider command and control context rather than in isolation. In the company’s description, scenarios may include multi sensor fusion, coordination of multiple drones, integration with indirect fires and procedures for operating over degraded or contested networks, with the operator treated as one node in a broader reconnaissance strike system. This framing is consistent with ALTRA’s published design, which combines software defined reconnaissance strike functions, AI assisted mission planning (including for swarms), edge AI support for GPS denied environments, open interfaces, automated fire correction, AI based sensor fusion and a distributed data fabric for use over constrained links.

Operationally, Helsing depicts ALTRA as aggregating multi source data, running on edge AI processing, performing automated target recognition, providing AI assisted engagement recommendations and coordinating the execution of fires and drones with real time updates. The company emphasises integration with European artillery systems, mortars, remote weapon stations, ISR drones and strike drones, including native control of HX-2 and connectivity to existing C2 systems such as Systematic’s SitaWare via open interfaces. Helsing characterises the combined effect of this architecture as a “10x force multiplier” through reduced decision times and operator workload, although independently verifying such quantitative gains is difficult with the information currently available in open sources.

Beyond land: a portfolio of AI related programmes

Enforce Tac only showed a portion of Helsing’s activities, which sit within a broader set of programmes across domains. On the air side, Helsing has presented concepts such as the CENTAUR AI “pilot” and the CA-1 EUROPA autonomous combat aircraft, which it positions as contributions to future air combat and combat air ecosystem work in Europe; these are generally discussed in the context of FCAS adjacent developments rather than as formally assigned FCAS pillars.

In the space domain, a strategic partnership with Loft Orbital aims to deploy an AI enabled multi sensor satellite constellation to provide near real time intelligence and situational awareness to European defence and security users. Helsing also communicates ambitions in the maritime domain, including uncrewed systems like the SG-1 FATHOM, although public technical detail on specific platforms remains limited.

In the defensive layer, Helsing and other European actors have promoted concepts such as counter-UAS networks and “drone wall” type constructs, in which AI enabled sensors and effectors are used for area defence along borders; in the Baltic region, for example, national authorities are pursuing drone wall initiatives that combine surveillance, counter-UAS and uncrewed systems. Helsing’s partnerships with established defence companies, including Saab and HENSOLDT, are framed as ways to embed AI modules into existing sensors and platforms, integrating them into wider command and control systems rather than treating them as stand alone equipment.

The company also stresses industrialisation, including scaling up HX-2 related production in Europe, as part of a transition from a pure software start-up profile towards serial defence manufacturing, though detailed volume and location data are not fully disclosed.

Ambition and role in European defence

Founded in 2021, Helsing describes itself as a European defence AI company with operations in Germany, the UK and France and several hundred employees. The company states that its software has been deployed by Ukrainian forces, including for target recognition and engagement support under intense electronic warfare conditions, and that operational feedback from Ukraine informs ongoing product development.

This combat use narrative underpins Helsing’s messaging to European customers, which emphasises AI capabilities tested in high intensity conflict rather than only in peacetime experimentation. Helsing’s activities align with several priorities articulated in recent German and wider European defence policy debates, including software-defined systems, faster capability delivery, network centric operations, autonomy, electronic warfare and air defence modernisation.

From an industrial perspective, Helsing’s software-first model, frequent update cycle and partnerships with established primes such as Saab illustrate one pathway for integrating digital capabilities into traditionally hardware centric procurement structures. At the same time, the company’s focus on European ownership of sensitive AI and data fusion technology speaks to ongoing discussions about technological sovereignty and the balance between European and non European suppliers in key C4ISR and autonomy segments.

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