Drone vs drone. Made in Munich.
Built for threats others have no answer for.
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 €300 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. Against Class I FPV threats at close range, no deployed answer exists in any established NATO inventory.
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.
— Bryan + Luca, Co-Founders
Built in Europe. Pre-Seed Round opens Q3 2026.
Briefings available under NDA.