DSEI UK 2025: Helsing, Systematic, partner on drone swarms

A new partnership between European defence tech firms Helsing and Systematic will provide AI-powered drone swarm capabilities integrated with Systematic’s existing command-and-control (C2) systems. The agreement, signed at the DSEI defence exhibition in London on Wednesday 10 September, aims to collaborate to develop sovereign capabilities within Europe.

The partnership will integrate Helsing’s AI capabilities with the Systematic SitaWare suite of C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) programmes. This integration is designed to make customers “drone ready” and enable the scaled deployment of autonomous sensors and effectors as drone swarms.

“As the AI age is increasing how we can use data, partnerships such as this help our users to get the most out of their systems, and the other platforms that support them,” Michael Holm, chairman and founder of Systematic explained. 

Helsing’s technology stack includes a range of products designed to provide autonomous operation of jets and improved electronic warfare. But the primary product that is relevant to this partnership is Altra. It is designed to manage land combat operations at “AI speed.” Using artificial intelligence to connect all elements of the battlefield, Altra aims to improve the accuracy, speed, and robustness of modern land forces. It also provides for the integration of other sensors and capabilities into its network.

This technology is expected to facilitate faster data exchange between drones, such as ISR platforms and Helsing’s HX-2 strike drone, which is currently deployed in Ukraine and natively integrated into Altra. SitaWare users will then be able to perform mission-critical tasks at increased speed and scale, including creating target lists, generating plans and orders, tasking strike assets, and deconflicting airspace. It will also provide a combined picture of friendly and enemy forces, the press release states. 

Data gathered from uncrewed systems will support tasks ranging from target nomination to battle damage assessment. When used with the strike capabilities of the HX-2 system, commanders are intended to have a comprehensive end-to-end F3EAD (find, fix, finish, exploit, analyse, disseminate) capability.

“We share a mission and an ambition — to intelligently network our forces at the speed the threat situation demands. What wins wars is not individual systems, but the ability to connect them and to iterate at the speed of relevance. Together, we will deliver exactly that for Europe’s defence,” Gundbert Scherf, co-founder and co-CEO of Helsing, said.

Calibre comment

The two companies have worked together during the British Army’s Project ASGARD, which set out to demonstrate the ability to quickly network assets together for a brigade in Estonia. The ultimate goal was to find a way to rapidly increase lethality. Systematic provided a lot of the C4ISR infrastructure for that project as its SitaWare suite is already in service with the British Army. It uses a range of communication standards that meant it could stitch all of the different components together and share data between them. 

One significant hurdle that the British Army must overcome on its path to a 20:40:40 force split, with 40% of its combat power coming from autonomous or attritable systems, is employing many drones simultaneously. This is sometimes referred to as the “one-to-many” paradigm. Typically, a small drone will require the full attention of at least one soldier. This means a force can only deploy as many drones as it has available soldiers. Moving to a one-to-many paradigm means one soldier should be able to control multiple drones, ideally in the air and land. If this cannot be realised, then the ultimate vision for drones providing much more of a force’s combat power is unachievable without. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on September 12, 2025. Credit for the lead image is Systematic and shows Michael Holm and Gundbert Scherf signing the Helsing-Systematic agreement on September 10.