Europe's best-funded defence start-up has decided the drone war needs a cheaper bullet. On Monday 26 October in Berlin, Helsing unveiled Contra, an AI-controlled air defence system, together with two interceptors of its own: the jet-powered AD-1 Inferno and the rocket-powered AD-2 Ambush.

The target is explicit. Russia's newer Geran-4 and Geran-5 attack drones, descendants of the Iranian Shahed, now run on jet engines rather than propellers. They are faster, fly higher and, according to Helsing, are being built in numbers that could overwhelm a defence designed for the old, slow Gerans.

Helsing's answer is not one more expensive missile. It is a network that uses whatever sensors and weapons a country already owns, plus two interceptors that the company says will cost a small fraction of what is fired at drones today.

A network first, missiles second

Contra runs on Altra, Helsing's existing command-and-control software. It fuses radar, electro-optical, infrared and acoustic sensors into one air picture and assigns targets to effectors. Helsing says it can integrate third-party weapons, from other interceptors to counter-drone lasers, guns and net systems, within days, and that human operators keep control of decisions and priorities.

The company also claims Contra can handle hundreds or even thousands of drone and missile threats at once. That figure is Helsing's own and has not been independently tested.

That dilemma is real. Ukrainian defenders built a layered shield of guns, mobile fire teams and interceptor drones that worked well against propeller Gerans. Against jet-powered versions, Defense News reports, citing Scherf, almost half now get through. The alternative, firing a NASAMS or Patriot round at a drone that costs a few hundred thousand euros, is a cost exchange no army can sustain for long.

AD-1 Inferno and AD-2 Ambush

The AD-1 Inferno is the workhorse, in Scherf's description. It is jet-powered and, according to reports from the launch, flies at about 700 km/h with a range of around 20 km. Unlike a conventional missile it can loiter, operate in swarms and come back for another pass if it misses.

The AD-2 Ambush is the sprinter. It uses a solid rocket motor and is meant for rapid intercepts of fast, high-flying targets: jet drones, subsonic cruise missiles and leakers that slip past the Inferno. Helsing claims Mach 2.5 and a range beyond 20 km; Defense News describes it more cautiously as more than twice the speed of sound.

Both receive mid-course updates from Contra's ground radars and use an onboard radar seeker for the final approach, so they work in bad weather. Both are launched from shipping containers, about 20 Infernos or 40 Ambushes per 20-foot container according to Defense News, and both are designed for mass production at Helsing's Resilience Factories through two independent European supply chains.

Not ready yet

For all the ambition, Contra is still in testing. Neither interceptor had completed flight testing at the unveiling. Scherf told reporters he expects the system to be market-ready in the second half of 2027, and said one customer has already signed a Contra contract, without naming it.

The price claim is the headline: under 100,000 per interceptor, according to Scherf, although outlets report the figure in both dollars and euros. Helsing's own press release says only that the cost is significantly below existing interceptors. If the company delivers anything close to that, the arithmetic of drone defence changes. If it does not, Contra joins a long list of air defence concepts that looked cheap on a slide.

Helsing has the money to try. The Munich company raised 1.8 billion dollars in a Series E round in July 2026. Contra is its bid to own the layer of air defence that sits between a machine gun and a Patriot battery, which is exactly where Russia's jet Gerans now fly.

Helsing's official launch film for Contra, AD-1 Inferno and AD-2 Ambush.

Sources: Helsing (press release and media kit), Defense News, Aviation Week, UNITED24 Media, Kyiv Post, Militarnyi