Helsing recently made news with the announcement of a new Resilience Factory based in Plymouth in the South of England. This will be the second Resilience Factory Helsing will build, with the first being in their home country of Germany. Plymouth will however be slightly different, with a focus on Naval gliders, as opposed to UAVs. The Factory will produce Helsing’s SG-1 Fathom, an AI equipped naval surveillance glider with unique and advanced capabilities. 

Helsing as a company is representative of the change in governmental requirements in terms of defence procurement. Governments can no longer rely on slow developments, and expensive products. Instead, the operating environment of today requires autonomous mass. The war in Ukraine has taught us that UAVs/USVs are an essential part of modern kinetic warfare.

What Helsing offers to Europe is a rare opportunity to fill in some of these gaps within our militaries, in a way which benefits every country with the means to produce their products (Resilience Factories). 

The benefits of having the SG-1 Fathom as a tool within the Royal Navy’s arsenal are significant. Firstly, the most obvious is that having a greater underwater presence will make the UK more war ready. Ukraine has made use of USVs to great effect, allowing them to target key Russian infrastructure and naval vessels with a reduction in risk to their own people. Ukrainian Magura Naval drones have even been able to down 2 Su-30 fighter jets over the black sea, the first time in military history a naval unmanned drone has shot down a military jet. The use of naval drones by Ukraine has transformed their capabilities at sea. Whilst at the start of the war, Ukraine seemed completely outmatched, they have been able to destroy or damage around a third of Russia’s infamous Black Sea Fleet. This demonstrates the importance of investing in unmanned capabilities, and the very fact that expensive military equipment is vulnerable to cheaper, higher mass, autonomous solutions.

Naval drones such as the SG-1 will also be used to protect key underwater infrastructure, such as under-sea cables. During times of war, these cables sometimes become a target of sabotage. Whilst damage done is typically fairly limited, the sabotage attempts take time, resources, and vessels capable of under-sea detection away from Submarine surveillance. Having a fleet of the SG-1 drones means that the under-sea cables are safer, and other naval vessels can be used to monitor enemy submarines.

Finally, the longer term strategic benefits of opening a Helsing factory are worth considering. It seems clear that the US, under Trump, is attempting to create some distance between themselves and Europe. This means less of a commitment to defending Europe from Russia (as evidenced by America’s shaky and ineffective stance and lack of commitment to assisting Ukraine). Europe then must begin to build an independent and thriving defence industry. The UK finds itself in a unique and difficult position where ties to America (previously seen as stronger than the rest of Europe) are beginning to unravel, and ties to the EU are obviously even more strained post-Brexit. Britain must find a way to build relations with its obvious partners, the EU, without alienating the US and fracturing NATO. A combined and mutually dependent British-EU Defence industry with the eventual goal of re-arming Europe and supporting Ukraine is a step towards it. A German defence company opening the second of it’s factories in the UK is more than an economic move, it is symbolic of changing relations within NATO.