Helsing Unveils New Autonomous Fighter Jet 'CA-1 Europa'

September 29, 2025

By Woodrow Bellamy III

Defense technology startup Helsing unveiled its new CA-1 autonomous fighter jet powered by their proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) software Centaur during a launch ceremony in Germany last week.

Helsing is taking a software-first approach to the design and development of CA-1 Europa. The startup — which specializes in AI software for tactical defense applications — is partnering with Grob Aircraft to design, engineer and manufacture CA-1 Europa. Headquartered in Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Germany, Grob has been manufacturing composite aircraft for more than 40 years, completing more than 3,500 deliveries of small general aviation aircraft. The company currently supplies training aircraft to the Royal Air Force.

“Uncrewed fighter jets will become a key capability for establishing air dominance and keeping us safe. Europe cannot afford to fall behind in this category or become dependent on third parties. With CA-1 Europa, we will make sure this does not happen,” said Helsing’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Torsten Reil.

Helsing showed a full-size design study of CA-1 Europa at Grob's facility in Tussenhausen-Mattsies, where the aircraft will be manufactured and tested. A production version of CA-1 Europa is expected to be available within "the next four years," according to Helsing, and will feature a development program that includes other unnamed European aerospace industry partners.

“The future of combat air is in attritable systems, with software and intelligence as the decisive technologies. That’s why CA-1 Europa has autonomy at its core,” said Stephanie Lingemann, Senior Director Air Domain at Helsing.

The unveiling of Helsing's new autonomous combat aircraft comes following their groundbreaking demonstration of the use of Centaur to control the movements of Saab's Gripen E fighter jet . Centaur is one of several AI agents developed by Helsing through "reinforcement learning," where developers place the agents in specific simulated or real world environments that train them through trial and error to perform human-like operations, such as flying an aircraft.

With its demonstrated ability to effectively act as an autonomous jet fighter pilot, Helsing is now combining the Centaur autonomy stack with Grob's history in aircraft design and manufacturing. Heising and Grob are also emphasizing scalability and the existing European aerospace supply chain to ensure CA-1 Europa will be "mass produceable."

"CA-1 Europa features an advanced software operating system for flexible integration of sensors, self-protection systems, effectors and software applications," the company said in its press release unveiling CA-1 Europa. "Helsing will also deliver a Command-and-Control system to support operators in planning, controlling and surveilling assets in complex autonomous missions. The platform is natively controllable by Helsing's Centaur AI pilot. CA-1 is suitable for various mission types, including deep precision strikes."

According to specifications released by Helsing, CA-1 Europa is 11 meters in length with a 10-meter wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of four tons. Helsing also notes that the aircraft will be capable of "high subsonic speeds." CA-1 Europa will also have the ability to be operated as a single asset or part of a swarm.