Helsing Takes On Palantir With A.I. Targeting Software ‘From Europe for Europe’
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Europe’s militaries want an A.I. that nobody in Washington can switch off, and Helsing wants to deliver it.
Munich-based defense start-up Helsing is presenting new A.I. software for military targeting in Berlin today. The system is designed to analyze data streams from drones, satellites and other sensors and speed up decisions on the battlefield, exactly what U.S. company Palantir offers with its Maven Smart System. It is "crucial" to be able to act on the battlefield "precisely, autonomously and without dependencies: from Europe and for Europe," Helsing said in its invitation, according to Reuters.
Palantir’s Maven Leads the Field
Maven is the best-known military A.I. system of its kind. It is used by the U.S. military, NATO commands and several NATO member states, and NATO bought the software last year. The war in Ukraine has shown how much such tools can do: they process huge amounts of data quickly and significantly shorten the path from reconnaissance to strike.
Still, Germany’s military is not betting on Palantir. The Bundeswehr has made clear that it will not buy Maven for now. Instead, it plans to deploy its own A.I.-based system from 2027, with full implementation expected in 2028. For Helsing, which already supplies combat drones to the Bundeswehr, that opens a door.
Fear of the Kill Switch
Behind the reluctance lies one main worry: that Washington could pull the plug in an emergency. U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to leave NATO have intensified the debate over dependence and data sovereignty. In October, a concrete example followed when speed restrictions on Ukraine’s Starlink terminals hampered its defense against Russian drones and forced some missions to be canceled.
The A.I. industry provided another lesson. In June, the Trump administration moved to block people outside the U.S. from accessing Anthropic’s most advanced models, Mythos and Fable, on national security grounds, and Anthropic abruptly suspended access worldwide. The ban was lifted within the same month, but European lawmakers say it proved that the U.S. has a "kill switch" over key technologies and is more than willing to use it.
Palantir Pushes Back
Palantir rejects the concern. Its customers have full operational control over the software they buy, and there is no "kill switch" that could disable it remotely, the company says. Palantir also has a head start in experience and adoption: Maven is already running at NATO and in several armed forces, while a new system first has to prove itself in practice and integrate into existing structures.
Helsing is not alone in its push. Europe’s defense start-ups are currently attracting a lot of money, as shown recently by the $300 million round for Onodrim, a start-up founded by former Palantir employees. What they often lack, according to a recent dual-use report, is not investors but government customers. Whether Helsing will play a role in the Bundeswehr’s planned in-house A.I. system remains open.
