Helsing to unveil AI targeting software in Berlin as Europe shops for a Palantir alternative

The invitation Berlin received, and the rival it names

German defence firm Helsing will present new artificial intelligence-based military targeting software in Berlin on Wednesday, Reuters reported on Tuesday, in a direct challenge to Palantir's Maven Smart System. The Munich company, Europe's best-known defence AI firm, is pitching its system to European governments that have grown wary of relying on American software for the most sensitive part of warfare: deciding what to strike.

The invitation to the Berlin presentation sets out the pitch in Helsing's own words. It is, the company says, “crucial that we be able to conduct precise reconnaissance, make the right decisions in the face of uncertainty, and act with precision on the battlefield, with autonomy and without dependencies: from Europe and for Europe”. The message is aimed at the procurement officials in the room, and at the ministers who decide what their armies buy.

What Helsing has said, and what Berlin has already decided

The system Helsing will show is a targeting platform: software that takes in data from drones, satellites and other sensors, and turns it into decisions about what is a target and what should be struck. Palantir's Maven Smart System does the same job today, and it is, in Reuters' words, the best-known military AI system of its kind, deployed by the United States, NATO commands and several NATO members.

Berlin has already made its position clear. Germany's military will not buy Palantir's Maven for its forces, for now at least, Vice Admiral Thomas Daum, who runs the armed forces' cyber and information domain, told the Handelsblatt newspaper in April. The country aims instead to deploy its own AI-powered system from 2027, with full implementation expected in 2028, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Helsing's recent record gives the pitch weight. On 4 November it transferred the source code, documentation and software development kit for MissionOSBw, the mission operating system for future combat drones, to the procurement agency BAAINBw, with ownership of the software remaining with the German state. The system sits inside the Combat Fighter System of Systems Nucleus programme, approved by parliament in July and worth about €580 million, built by a consortium led by Helsing with Hensoldt, Rohde & Schwarz, MBDA and Diehl Defence. On 26 October the company unveiled Contra, its AI air defence system, and two interceptor missiles,

The system has no name, no price and no customer yet

For all the framing, the product itself remains largely undescribed. Reuters' report gives no name for the new system, no technical specifications, no price and no launch customer. It is not clear whether Wednesday will show a finished product, a working prototype, or a concept aimed at winning a development contract,

Just as important is what Berlin has not said. The German military has said it will not buy Maven, but it has not said it will buy Helsing's alternative. The 2027 deployment date and the 2028 full-implementation date come from Reuters' reporting, not from a published procurement decision, and the funding, staffing and testing schedule behind those dates have not been made public.

Why does a software unveiling count as a sovereignty decision?

Targeting software is political here, because it sits where one country's military depends on another country's companies. After President Donald Trump's repeated threats to quit NATO, concerns over dependence on Washington and data sovereignty have fuelled resistance to Palantir across Europe, Reuters reported. The fear is not abstract: it is about who can switch a system off, who can see the data, and who decides what the software is allowed to do.

Two recent episodes gave that fear its shape. Last month, speed restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink terminals hampered Kyiv's efforts to intercept Russian drones and forced some operations to be cancelled. In June, the Trump administration moved to block non-US residents from Anthropic's most advanced models, Mythos and Fable, on national security grounds, prompting the AI company to suspend access globally before the ban was lifted later the same month. European lawmakers still warn the episode showed the United States holds a “kill switch” over essential technologies it is willing to use.

The launch belongs to a wider pattern: the Gulf states agreed this week to build a joint military command of their own, and the debate over who controls the chips and software inside modern weapons runs through every capital, including in the dispute over chip exports to China. For Europe, the question is whether it can build the tools of its own defence, or whether it will keep renting them from a partner it no longer fully trusts.

A product launch that is really a procurement argument

Strip away the presentation staging, and Wednesday is an argument addressed to a small audience: the officials who write Europe's defence cheques. Helsing is not selling to consumers, and it is not even selling a finished product yet. It is selling the idea that a European company can do what Palantir does, without the political strings that now come attached to American software, and it is selling it at the moment when Berlin has already decided it wants exactly that.

The argument has real force behind it. Helsing has spent the autumn proving it can deliver: the MissionOSBw handover put state-owned drone software in German hands, Contra showed it can build air defence hardware as well as code, and the CFSN programme gives it a €580 million framework inside the German defence establishment.

But the argument also has a weakness, and it is the same one every challenger to an entrenched system faces. Maven is not a slide deck. It is deployed, tested and woven into the daily work of the United States military and NATO commands, with years of operational use. Helsing's system, whatever its merits, has no comparable record, no public price and no confirmed buyer. The sovereignty premium is real, building at home costs more and takes longer, and the question for Berlin is whether the political gain is worth the capability gap in the meantime. No presentation can make that decision.

What happens if Berlin buys European; and what if it does not?

If Berlin commits to a European targeting system, the effects will travel well beyond one contract. A German purchase would give Helsing the reference customer other European capitals are waiting for, and it would set a procurement precedent that France, the Netherlands and others could follow; the Dutch defence ministry has already said it wants a fully developed substitute for Palantir within two years, and France is testing its own battlefield AI.

If Berlin does not buy, the consequences cut the other way. Helsing's momentum would stall at the moment it matters most, and the sovereignty rhetoric that has carried the debate through 2026 would meet the harder reality of budgets, timelines and capability. Europe would keep running American software while talking about replacing it, The tension behind this moment is not going away: the United States has shown it will use its leverage over technology, and its allies have shown they are no longer comfortable with that, even as American forces reposition around the Iran crisis and the alliance is tested on other fronts.

Wednesday's presentation, then the procurement clock

The first test comes on Wednesday, when Helsing presents the system in Berlin. Watch for a name, technical details, and above all a customer; a launch buyer would turn a pitch into a programme. Watch too for what the German defence ministry says in response, and whether the 2027 deployment date is confirmed, moved or quietly dropped.