This new fighter jet is being developed in collaboration with Grob Aircraft and is expected to be operational within four years, combining Grob’s manufacturing capability with Helsing’s Centaur AI pilot autonomy stack. The CA-1 Europa is designed for various missions, including deep precision strikes, and is configured to operate alone or as part of a swarm at high subsonic speeds, prioritizing affordability and a resilient European supply chain. Company leadership emphasizes that this development is crucial for European air dominance and sovereignty, preventing dependence on foreign entities for this key capability.

1.0 Project Overview

This document serves as a comprehensive brief on the CA-1 Europa project, detailing the platform's core characteristics, technological underpinnings, and strategic goals for internal stakeholders and partners. The project's core thesis is the fusion of Helsing's proven dominance in artificial intelligence with Grob Aircraft's established manufacturing prowess to deliver a uniquely European, software-defined weapon system.

This convergence of cutting-edge software and a scalable hardware foundation is a definitive response to the strategic imperative for sovereign European capabilities in next-generation air combat.

• Platform Name: CA-1 Europa
• Platform Type: Autonomous Uncrewed Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV)
• Primary Developer: Helsing
• Core Autonomy System: Centaur AI Pilot
• Current Status: Development unveiled; full-size design study shown.
• Projected Operational Timeline: Within the next four years.

The project aims to secure a leading position for Europe in the critical domain of autonomous air dominance, ensuring the continent can independently develop and deploy the capabilities essential for future security.

2.0 Strategic Imperative and Program Vision

This section articulates the core vision and strategic rationale driving the CA-1 Europa program. The project is founded on the urgent need to develop and maintain sovereign European capabilities in next-generation air combat, ensuring technological independence and operational superiority.

Helsing's leadership has articulated three core strategic drivers for the program:

Establishing European Sovereignty 

The primary objective is to prevent strategic dependency on non-European nations for critical defense technologies. As stated by Helsing Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Torsten Reil, “Europe cannot afford to fall behind in this category or become dependent on third parties.” The CA-1 Europa is envisioned as a cornerstone of European technological sovereignty, ensuring the continent can independently develop and deploy the uncrewed fighter jets essential for future air dominance.

Leading with Software and Autonomy 

The program marks a strategic shift towards software-centric warfare and intelligent mass. Stephanie Lingemann, Helsing’s Senior Director for the Air Domain, articulates this vision: “The future of combat air is in attritable systems, with software and intelligence as a key enabling technology.” Consequently, the CA-1 Europa is designed with autonomy at its core, prioritizing the AI, software, and data processing capabilities that deliver a decisive combat edge over the cost of the individual airframe.

Enhancing Partner Nation Capability 

The CA-1 Europa is designed to be a force multiplier for European air forces. Helsing’s UK Managing Director, Ned Baker, highlights the direct benefit to partners like the Royal Air Force (RAF), stating that the platform "will offer the RAF unprecedented combat air capability – an autonomous collaborative platform that can undertake a number of different missions to protect the UK without putting British pilots in harm's way.” This vision emphasizes enhancing mission effectiveness while significantly improving the safety of human pilots.

This strategic intent provides the foundational requirements for the platform's technical architecture, engineered to deliver these high-level objectives.

3.0 Platform Architecture and Key Features

The CA-1 Europa’s design philosophy is engineered to meet the operational requirement for "intelligent mass." This strategic concept is the direct outcome of combining a mass-produceable airframe (enabling scale), an advanced software OS (enabling intelligence and adaptability), and affordable payloads (enabling risk-tolerant deployment). This synthesis allows the platform to operate with maximum flexibility, configured for missions as a single asset or as part of a swarm, with its core specifications detailed below.

The platform's system architecture is a key enabler of its multi-role capability. It features an advanced software operating system designed for the flexible integration of a wide range of components. This open architecture allows for the seamless incorporation of various sensors, self-protection systems, effectors, and third-party software applications, ensuring the platform remains adaptable to evolving threats and mission requirements.

The full potential of this modular, software-defined architecture is unlocked by its neural center—the Centaur AI pilot system.

4.0 Autonomy Core: Centaur AI Pilot System

The Centaur AI Pilot is the central nervous system of the CA-1 Europa and its primary technological differentiator. The entire platform is natively controllable by this advanced artificial intelligence, which handles complex decision-making and mission execution in dynamic environments.

The Centaur system is a mature and proven technology, representing the culmination of four years of dedicated development by Helsing in AI-based air dominance algorithms. Its capability was recently demonstrated with strategic partner Saab, where it was successfully integrated with the Gripen fighter jet, showcasing its real-world effectiveness.

Within the CA-1 Europa, the Centaur autonomy stack provides the world-leading software required for superior situational awareness and autonomous mission execution. This core AI is complemented by an associated Command-and-Control (C2) system, which Helsing will also deliver. This C2 system is designed to support human operators in the complex tasks of planning, controlling, and surveying autonomous assets during missions, enabling effective human-machine teaming.

Bringing this advanced AI technology from demonstration to a fully operational platform requires a robust and collaborative development framework.

5.0 Development, Manufacturing, and Partnership Framework

The CA-1 Europa project employs a collaborative development model, leveraging a network of key partners from across the European aerospace ecosystem. This strategy is designed to ensure a resilient and scalable production capacity, fostering a robust European supply and logistics chain that is critical for a sovereign defense program.

The roles and contributions of the key partners are clearly defined:

Helsing: As the primary developer, Helsing is providing the core AI technology that underpins the entire system. This includes the Centaur AI pilot and the associated Command-and-Control system for operator interface.

Grob Aircraft: A Helsing subsidiary, Grob Aircraft is responsible for the physical aircraft design, manufacturing, development, and testing. The project leverages Grob's proven capabilities and extensive experience in producing aircraft in the three-to-five tons-class.

European Manufacturing Ecosystem: A broader network of leading industrial players is being engaged to build the aircraft. This approach focuses on achieving production scalability and establishing a resilient supply chain that is contained within Europe.

All current development and testing activities for the CA-1 Europa are taking place at the Grob Aircraft facilities. This comprehensive framework is structured to deliver a production-ready platform capable of fulfilling a range of critical operational roles.

6.0 Intended Operational Roles and Mission Capabilities

The combination of the CA-1 Europa's technical specifications and its advanced autonomy core translates into a versatile, multi-role operational platform. It is designed to execute complex missions in contested airspace, providing a significant capability enhancement for modern air forces.

The platform is designed to execute a variety of mission types, including:

• Multi-Role Operations: The aircraft is fundamentally designed as an autonomous multi-role jet, adaptable to different mission sets.
• Deep Precision Strikes: This mission type has been explicitly identified as a suitable application for the platform's capabilities.
• Air Dominance: As articulated by Helsing's leadership, uncrewed fighter jets are considered a key future capability for establishing and maintaining air dominance.

A central strategic concept for the CA-1 Europa is its role as an "attritable system." This classification signifies a departure from traditional, high-value crewed assets. An attritable platform can be risked in high-threat environments without the catastrophic loss of a pilot or an irreplaceable aircraft. This allows commanders to take calculated risks and project power in ways untenable with crewed systems, shifting the focus from preserving the airframe to achieving the mission objective through the intelligent application of mass. This directly achieves the strategic goal of protecting pilots from harm, a key benefit highlighted by partners like the RAF.

In conclusion, the CA-1 Europa represents a sovereign, autonomous, and scalable combat air platform. It directly addresses Europe’s strategic imperatives by integrating the combat-proven Centaur AI pilot into a mass-produceable airframe, supported by a resilient European supply chain. This deliberate fusion of software-defined autonomy and scalable hardware delivers the intelligent mass required to establish air dominance and ensure European security for decades to come.