European defense company Helsing has announced the production of 6,000 HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukraine. It previously produced 4,000 HF-1 strike drones, which are already being transferred to Ukrainian defenders.
European defense company Helsing has announced the production of 6,000 HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukraine. It previously produced 4,000 HF-1 strike drones, which are already being transferred to Ukrainian defenders.
Unveiled in late 2024, the HX-2 is an electric-powered X-wing precision strike drone with a range of up to 100 km. It features advanced onboard artificial intelligence that provides complete resistance to electronic warfare. The HX-2 is capable of engaging artillery, armored, and other military targets.
«Working as part of Helsing’s Altra reconnaissance and strike software, multiple HX-2s can be combined into swarms, controlled by a single human operator. The HX-2 was designed for mass production and has a significantly lower cost per unit than conventional systems, thus filling a gap in the capabilities of modern ground warfare», — the company said.
Helsing also announced the completion of the first «Resilience Factories» in southern Germany. These are Helsing’s high-efficiency production facilities designed to provide the state with local production capacity. Helsing intends to build «Resilience Factories» across the European continent, with the ability to scale production to tens of thousands of units in the event of conflict. The first «Resilience Factory» (RF-1) is operating in southern Germany and has an initial monthly production capacity of over 1,000 HX-2.
«We are ramping up production of the HX-2 in response to additional orders from Ukraine, where mass precision is daily compensating for the numerical disadvantage of legacy systems. It is clear that NATO must learn important lessons, and quickly. Through our Resilience Factories, we are taking a distributed approach to mass-producing these systems across Europe, allowing individual countries to produce them locally and ensuring production and supply chain sovereignty», — said Gundbert Scherf, co-founder of Helsing.
In December, Helsing Co-CEO Torsten Reil reported that the company had not yet signed any contracts for the new HX-2 strike drone, so Ukraine became one of the first countries to receive this development in large quantities.
