Drone vs drone. Made in Munich.
Built for threats others have no answer for.
FPV drones are not future technology. They are the defining weapon of modern conflict. An industrially scalable answer to the Class I FPV threat does not exist today: shotguns and fishing nets are improvisation, five-figure guided missiles are neither economically viable nor technically designed for 300-Euro drones.
Conventional counter-UAS architectures such as radar-based air defence, 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 tied to vehicle or naval platforms — and therefore not infantry-portable. For Class I FPV in close-range infantry contexts, no deployed answer exists across any established NATO portfolio.
Only now are the technological prerequisites met: affordable edge-AI compute, mature vision-based guidance, performant quad-platform hardware in the right cost class. A deployment-capable 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 are building it.
THREE PILLARS OF OUR MISSION.
Protecting people and critical infrastructure
Soldiers in the field. Convoys on the move. Airports, harbours, energy infrastructure. Class I FPV drones strike exactly where defence is missing today. An effective answer against this threat class saves lives and protects what carries a 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 do not reach into close-range. Drone vs drone: on the same physical plane, in the same cost class, with the same scalability. This is the answer this threat class demands.
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 defence capability Europe controls itself.
DEFENCE 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. Effect only against airborne threats during their approach.
- Authorized customers only
- Distribution exclusively to authorised governmental 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 authorisation by authorised operator. During the terminal phase, autonomous within defined engagement parameters. Disengage-override 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 build Herakles because the gap will not let us go. Since 2022 we have watched soldiers fight a threat that exceeds their defences. Shotguns, nets, improvisation. Or guided missiles that cost ten times what they intercept. An answer that works and scales is missing today.
We asked ourselves whether we could build it. We think yes. We also think 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.
— Bryan + Luca, Co-Founders
An answer being built in Europe. Pre-Seed Round opens Q3 2026.
Briefings available under NDA.