Spiegel: Bundeswehr is testing an AI platform for combat operations
The German defense startup Helsing has introduced an AI-based platform, writes Spiegel. Europe is trying to get rid of its dependence on American military technology. However, the question remains how predictable the actions of artificial intelligence can be, and whether this will lead to accidental casualties.
The defense startup Helsing is launching an artificial intelligence platform for combat operations. Thus, the Munich-based company is challenging the American developer of Palantir data analysis systems. According to SPIEGEL, the Bundeswehr is already testing the new system.
The German defense company Helsing unveiled a new software platform called Clarity in Berlin on Wednesday. It is designed to help the armed forces conduct intelligence, form an up-to-date picture of the operational situation and identify targets using agent-based artificial intelligence.
The development is related to the changes taking place on modern battlefields, in particular during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The flow of information from weapons systems equipped with cameras and sensors is rapidly increasing, and the capabilities of military analysts to process this data are increasingly reaching their limits.
This is exactly the problem Helsing intends to solve with Clarity (translated from English as "clarity"), co—founder Gundbert Scherf and chief developer Rob Fink told SPIEGEL during a preliminary demonstration of the new platform.
Results "in a matter of seconds"
According to Scherf, the goal is to reduce the time between receiving information from sensors and using weapons systems. The military calls this a shortening of the "Kill Chain."
Until now, military analysts with various specialized knowledge were required to analyze various sources of information, from satellite reconnaissance and radio intercepts to electromagnetic data. Artificial intelligence-based software is able to do this job faster.
"With Clarity, the military command can significantly reduce the burden on its analysts and carry out even complex target identification operations that, with a traditional approach, can take up to 72 hours in just a few minutes," said Helsing spokesman Scherf.
In some cases, the artificial intelligence system produces results "in a matter of seconds." In addition, it allows you to track the movement of equipment and military units in almost real time.
According to SPIEGEL, Helsing, with its Clarity platform, is participating in the technical tests of the Bundeswehr, which have been going on for several months.
The German armed Forces are looking for their own independent software for processing large amounts of data.
Next year, cyber technology specialists intend to choose from several German and European companies the one that will receive a lucrative contract.
Helsing refused to either confirm or deny its participation in the trials. According to SPIEGEL, in addition to the Munich company, other developers are fighting for the contract.
Criticism of the use of AI in war
Helsing representatives emphasize that Clarity's decisive advantage over competing systems is the use of agent-based artificial intelligence. In addition, the platform was designed from the very beginning as an AI-based system.
The AI agents used were specifically designed for military use, and the underlying models were trained by Helsing itself.
According to developer Rob Fink, this process is more complicated than learning universal artificial intelligence models.
Unlike civilian applications, there is either very little or no training data available for many military installations and combat scenarios.
Therefore, real data reflecting the conditions of combat use had to be combined with synthetic data created by artificial intelligence.
The use of AI in the armed forces raises serious concerns and sometimes harsh criticism.
First of all, it's about how morally acceptable it is to trust an algorithm to make decisions related to killing people.
In addition, the decisions of artificial intelligence models are sometimes impossible to explain or trace the logic of their adoption.
Helsing claims to have taken these concerns into account at the product design stage.
In particular, Clarity provides transparency in the information retrieval process and allows you to track which data sources were used by the system.
In addition, it is up to the individual to decide when and with what weapons to hit the targets detected by Clarity.
"The person retains control," Sherf stressed.
"Sovereignty" as an argument in favor of purchase
Helsing was founded in 2021. With a total estimated value of about $18 billion, it is Germany's most expensive startup and Europe's most expensive private company in the field of defense technology.
Until now, its main product was the HX-2 kamikaze drone. According to the company, several hundred such drones are delivered to Ukraine every month.
In February of this year, the Bundeswehr initially ordered 4,300 units for about 270 million euros.
In addition, Helsing has announced a series of products for various military applications in a short time.
Among them is the CA—1 Europa unmanned combat aircraft, whose first flight is scheduled for 2027, as well as the autonomous Contra air defense system controlled by artificial intelligence, designed to repel massive attacks by drones and cruise missiles.
By promoting Clarity in the market, Helsing is clearly betting on a pan-European desire to reduce dependence on American technology companies.
Helsing's statement emphasizes that Clarity "inherently has technological sovereignty" and can operate entirely on customer-owned infrastructure.
"Artificial intelligence models and interfaces for interacting with other systems have also been developed by Helsing in Europe," the company said in a statement.
Competition with Palantir
Thus, Helsing is competing with the American company Palantir and its Maven Smart Systems platform.
The US Department of Defense launched this project in 2017 under the name Project Maven. Initially, Google was his corporate partner.
However, resistance to participating in the project quickly arose within Google.
Several thousand employees signed an appeal demanding that they refuse to cooperate, because they "did not want to participate in the military business."
Some employees have quit.
In 2019, Google allowed the contract to expire, after which Palantir received a new contract.
The company's co-founder, American entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, called Google's behavior "high treason."
Palantir continued to develop the system and sold it to the main branches of the US armed forces.
The use of Maven caused a wide international outcry during the strike of the American armed forces on an elementary school on the first day of the American-Israeli war against Iran in February.
150 people died, including at least 123 children.
According to American media reports, one of the reasons for the strike was outdated target data, according to which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility was still allegedly located on the school grounds.
The Bloomberg news agency suggested that the US military was overly reliant on the Palantir artificial intelligence to identify targets.
The company denied the allegations, saying there was no evidence of its software working incorrectly.
Presumably, Maven is also used by the European Command of the US Armed Forces (Eucom), which is headquartered in Stuttgart's Feichingen area.
In 2025, NATO acquired its own version of Maven from Palantir called MSS NATO.
Thus, Palantir moved closer to the Bundeswehr.
In particular, the command posts of the German troops operating in the NATO structure are connected to the Maven system.
However, the Bundeswehr does not fully trust this ambiguously perceived company.
According to SPIEGEL, Germany still does not transfer raw source data from its own sources to Maven.
Instead, the German military uploads only pre-processed and therefore less sensitive information to the system.
The German Ministry of Defense and the Bundeswehr are very interested in alternative solutions from German and European companies.
Influential representatives of the German military leadership hope that if the Helsing platform and other developments of German and European competitors currently undergoing testing prove their effectiveness, it will be possible to replace Palantir even in NATO structures.
However, the new systems have yet to prove their capabilities in practice first.
