Sustainable protection for lives and assets worth millions against fiber-optic FPVs. Made in Munich.
Small drones. Serious purpose.
FPV drones are no longer a future technology. They are the defining weapon of modern conflict. A mass-producible answer to the Class I FPV threat does not exist today: shotguns and fishing nets are field improvisations, guided missiles costing tens of thousands of euros are neither economically viable nor technically designed for low-cost drones.
Conventional counter-UAS architectures such as radar-based air defense, RF jammers and vehicle-borne interceptors were designed for different threat classes. High-energy lasers are a promising approach, but not yet in widespread service and bound to vehicle or naval platforms — and therefore not infantry-portable. No deployed answer is publicly documented for Class I FPV threats at close range.
The technological prerequisites are only now in place: affordable edge-AI compute, mature vision-based guidance, high-performance quad-platform hardware in the right cost class. A field-deployable solution is possible.
Europe needs its own capability: Made in Europe, deployable, scalable. No waiting for US solutions, no dependence on supply chains designed for consumer hardware. We're building it.
THREE PILLARS OF OUR MISSION.
Protecting people and critical infrastructure
Soldiers in the field. Convoys on the move. Airports, harbors, energy infrastructure. Class I FPV drones strike exactly where defense is missing today. An effective answer against this threat class saves lives and protects the foundations of society.
Answer to a new threat class
An FPV threat demands an FPV-scale answer. Conventional architectures of radar, RF jamming and guided missiles were designed for different classes and don't engage at close range. Drone vs drone: on the same physical plane, in the same cost class, with the same scalability. This is what the threat class actually requires.
European Sovereignty
A capability for Europe must be built in Europe. Made in Munich, ITAR-free, without US supply-chain dependency, without third-party re-export approvals. A defense capability under European control.
DEFENSE ETHICS.
- Defensive use only
- We do not build offensive effectors. Herakles is a kinetic intercept effector against hostile drones: no loitering munition, no ground-attack platform, no warhead against personnel or infrastructure. Effective only against airborne threats during their approach.
- Authorized customers only
- Distribution exclusively to authorized government customers in NATO, EU, and allied states. Compliance with all relevant export control regulations. No export to authoritarian regimes or embargoed states.
- Human-in-the-loop
- Launch authorization by an authorized operator. During the terminal phase, autonomous within defined engagement parameters. Disengage-override is available to the operator at all times.
- Responsible AI
- Trained classifiers exclusively for drone detection, not for person recognition. Onboard state estimation, GPS-independent. No biometric identification database, no surveillance use case.
FOUNDERS' NOTE.
München
We're building Herakles because we can't shake the problem. Since 2022 we've watched soldiers fight a threat that exceeds their defenses. Shotguns, nets, improvisation. Or guided missiles that cost ten times more than the targets they shoot down. Today, there's no answer that works and scales.
We asked ourselves whether we could build it. We believe we can. And we believe it has to come from Europe — defensive, and as fast as the threat grows.
We're looking for people who are as driven by this cause as we are — across engineering, defense, and operations.
WHAT WE ARE BUILDING TOWARD
OUR INTERCEPTOR IS THE BEGINNING.
Herakles starts with a clear task: reliably intercepting small, fast-maneuvering drones at close range. Over time, we are developing this into a scalable European counter-UAS platform — able to connect with existing sensors and systems and adapt to emerging threat profiles.
Mesh-Free Kinetic Swarm Defense
The goal: multiple interceptors engaging multiple incoming drones at the same time — coordinated without relying on a persistent mesh or central cloud. Local autonomy and distributed target assignment turn individual platforms into a scalable protective layer. The benchmark stays the same as for today's system: effectiveness against attackers that electronic warfare cannot stop.
Physical AI: Neural End-to-End Guidance
Today, Herakles relies on explainable, deterministic guidance. Over time, we will evaluate neural end-to-end models that more tightly connect perception and flight control — with measurable validation, defined safety boundaries and operator authorization. Research has shown that purely neural-network-controlled drones master agile flight at the physical limit — beating human world champions in FPV racing. Interception is the next step.
Effector Evolution
The first generation stops drones through physical contact. Future platforms are intended to support different defensive effectors — modular across target class, operating environment and protection mission, without rebuilding the entire interceptor architecture. The spectrum ranges from reusable variants for training and civilian site protection to effect principles that bring threats down in a controlled way, with zero collateral effect.
Built in Europe. Pre-Seed Round opens Q3 2026.
Briefings available under NDA.