Back in February, during the Munich Security Conference, we wrote about how German/Swiss/US startup Auterion and Ukrainian startup Airlogix were using the event to announce plans to mass produce AI-guided aerial systems. We’ve just found out that the deal is now yielding some tangible results.
The pair have started producing and delivering Auterion-powered Airlogix hardware: Anubis and Seth X airframes, respectively used for heavy and medium-range strikes. Resilience Media understands the government contract is worth $300 million. In total, more than 5,000 systems will be supplied, the companies said.
The companies say that this is the first time that Germany is producing precision strike systems on home turf. The benefit of them are that they typically cost a fraction of the larger systems they aim to replace in terms of firepower.
“Germany now has a production line for affordable precision mass,” said Lorenz Meier, the CEO and founder of Auterion, in a statement. “We are delivering fielded, proven systems this year, at a cost and rate that makes deterrencesomething you can actually stockpile.”
The systems run on software from Auterion, which some have described as the “Android” of the drone world for building an operating system and functionality on an open source framework, intending for it to power hardware from a number of vendors.
Here, the systems are equipped with AI-guided terminal navigation, GNSS-denied operation, and the potential for being operated in swarms by way of Auterion’s Nemyx tech.
At a time when we are alarmingly seeing lethality carried out by entirely AI-powered systems, the companies note that “a human operator designates every target; the software automates execution after that decision.”
Startups in defence are increasingly going to collaborate together to make closer integrations and improve how they go to market.
“This partnership brings together what neither company could achieve alone: our combat-proven airframes, Auterion’s autonomy software, and German industrial capacity,” said Vitalii Kolesnichenko, CEO of Airlogix, in a statement.
