Helsing’s New CA-1 Europa Autonomous Fighter Jet

December 1, 2025

Helsing
Munich, Germany
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www.helsing.ai

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.

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.”

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