Helsing landed in West Virginia with $1.8 billion in its pocket and not a single US government contract to its name.
The factory turns the usual defence procurement sequence upside down: build the plant first, find the customer second. If it works, it redefines how foreign defence tech enters the US market. If it doesn't, it is a very expensive lesson in American industrial policy.
Three things make this bet worth watching: the HX-2's combat record in Ukraine, the GPS-independent navigation that sets it apart from every competing loitering munition, and the fact that the US Army has already flown it at 88 percent effectiveness with zero acquisition dollars committed.
The Munich-based company announced its first US Resilience Factory on July 13, one day after closing what is the largest single funding round ever raised by a European defence technology company. The timing was not accidental. Helsing's $1.8 billion Series E, co-led by Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives, values the firm at $18 billion and brings its total capital raised since 2021 to $3.35 billion.
That money has a specific destination: building industrial capacity on both sides of the Atlantic, starting with a plant in Berkeley County, West Virginia, that will manufacture the HX-2, a software-defined loitering munition that it calls "the world's first AI-defined strike drone."
The Factory in the Mountains
Martinsburg sits in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, 90 minutes from Washington DC and closer to the Pentagon's supply chain than most of the domestic defence industry. The site won a nationwide search that Helsing's US general manager Jennifer McArdle described as competitive and exhaustive. The company committed $50 million for the initial build-out, with the state of West Virginia contributing customized workforce training through Blue Ridge Community and Technical College.
The facility will create at least 60 full-time jobs at an average salary of $125,000. It targets initial operating capability by November 2026 and full-rate production within one year after that. Once operational, the plant will produce more than 2,000 HX-2 units per month, with room to scale further. At that rate it would be one of the highest-output precision-strike drone facilities in the United States.
"Factories win wars," McArdle told the audience at the announcement ceremony, per WV MetroNews.
The HX-2: What the Factory Actually Builds
The HX-2 is not a remote-controlled aircraft. It is an electrically propelled X-wing precision munition that navigates without GPS. That capability, in the electronic warfare environment over Ukraine, separates functional drones from expensive debris. The system uses machine vision and terrain-referenced navigation to identify and engage targets when satellite signals are completely jammed.
| Specification | HX-2 | Typical loitering munition |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation | ✔ AI + terrain-referenced (GPS-independent) | ✗ GPS-dependent, jammed in EW environments |
| Speed | 220 km/h | 100–180 km/h |
| Endurance | 60 minutes | 30–120 minutes |
| Range | 100 km | 40–80 km |
| Production target | 2,000/month (per factory) | Variable, typically hundreds/month |
Source: Helsing, The Defense Post, Defence Industry Europe
The HX-2 arrives with real-world validation. It says thousands of units have been deployed to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2026 alone. The US Army tested the drone during the Flytrap exercise in Lithuania, achieving 15 hits out of 17 launches against targets in a simulated electronic warfare environment, achieving an 88 percent effectiveness rate according to Calibre Defence's assessment of the trial data.
⚠️ Critical Context on Combat Performance:
While the HX-2 has been deployed in Ukraine and achieved an 88% success rate in controlled US Army Flytrap exercises, independent reports from early 2026 (including Bloomberg and The Defense Post) highlight significant challenges in real-world combat conditions. Ukrainian and German defense sources reportedly paused or delayed follow-on orders due to the drone's vulnerability to advanced electronic warfare (EW) systems and launch reliability issues, with some field assessments indicating accuracy dropping to approximately 35% under heavy jamming. Consequently, the practical implementation of the €268 million German framework agreement approved in February 2026 has faced delays as these technical shortcomings are being addressed. This contrast between controlled testing and contested battlefield environments remains a critical risk factor for Helsing's scaling ambitions.
The HX-2's Project Flytrap results — 15 hits out of 17 launches against targets in a simulated electronic warfare environment — are genuine and significant.— Alex Miller, Chief Technology Officer, US Army
Germany has already voted with its budget. The Bundestag approved an initial €268 million contract for the HX-2 in February 2026, choosing Helsing over Rheinmetall, the country's largest defence contractor, which failed to deliver a functioning demonstrator on time. The contract includes an innovation clause requiring it to continuously deliver upgraded versions, a procurement structure designed to keep pace with the rapid evolution of drone warfare documented in Ukraine.
The Strategic Bet
Helsing's West Virginia factory inverts the standard playbook for foreign defence contractors entering the US market. The usual sequence is: win a Pentagon contract first, then build domestic production capacity to fulfill it. It is doing the opposite — standing up a factory capable of 2,000 units per month before it has a single US government order.
The risk is not hypothetical. Calibre Defence editor Sam Cranny-Evans pointed to AeroVironment, a US loitering-munition maker that has drawn at least $1.85 billion in US contracts since 2021, as evidence that even a modest US order can outweigh a European production contract. But AeroVironment had its factory before the contracts came. It is betting that domestic production is itself the precondition that unlocks the procurement door: that the Pentagon buys from where the industrial base already exists, not the other way around.
West Virginia's side of the deal makes the bet more manageable. The state offers customized workforce training, East Coast logistics access, and baseload energy pricing. The 44,000-square-foot plant is modest by heavy-industry standards, a single building, not a campus. It can scale up if the orders materialize, or hold at the initial 2,000-unit monthly run rate if they do not.
What Happens When the Pentagon Orders
Probability: 75%. The US Army's Flytrap evaluation, Germany's €268 million contract as a NATO reference, and the factory's domestic production status create a procurement pathway that aligns with the Pentagon's documented urgency around drone volume. A Section 845 or OTA (Other Transaction Authority) contract is the most likely entry vehicle, faster than a full-program acquisition and consistent with how the DoD has bought from non-traditional vendors since 2023.
✅ Arguments for
+ Domestic production eliminates the Buy America hurdle that blocks most foreign defence tech
+ The Pentagon's Replicator initiative and related programmes explicitly target 1,000+ unit monthly runs that few US vendors can currently deliver
+ Germany's contract provides a NATO interoperability reference that procurement officers can cite
Confirmation criteria: A US DoD OTA award to Helsing within 90 days of November 2026 factory IOC.
❌ Arguments against
− The US Army tested 17 HX-2 units, a sample too small to guarantee procurement-scale reliability
− AeroVironment, Kratos, and Anduril all have competing loitering-munition programmes with existing Pentagon relationships
− The $50 million investment is small relative to the $1.8 billion raise, suggesting it is testing the US market rather than committing to it fully
− Real-world combat reports from early 2026 indicate the HX-2 struggles under heavy electronic warfare (EW) jamming, with accuracy reportedly dropping to ~35%. This has led to paused follow-on orders from Ukraine and Germany, raising questions about the system's reliability at scale in contested environments. Disconfirmation criteria: No DoD contract 180 days after November 2026 IOC, or a competing US programme (e.g. Anduril's) reaches comparable monthly output first.
Development scenarios
🟢 Optimistic scenario (35%)
Implications: Validates the build-first, contract-second model for foreign defence tech entering the US market. Triggers a wave of similar European defence startup factory investments in the US.
🟡 Base-case scenario (45%)
Implications: The build-first model works, but at a slower pace than investors expect. Its valuation adjusts to reflect the longer US market penetration cycle.
🔴 Pessimistic scenario (20%)
Implications: It retrenches to Europe. The build-first model is discredited for at least 2–3 years, and European defence tech startups face harder questions from US investors about their go-to-market strategy.
Factory timeline: Does it meet its November 2026 IOC target? Construction delays would signal that site selection was easier than factory execution.
First US customer: An OTA or Section 845 award from any DoD component within 12 months of IOC, not just Army but also SOCOM, Navy, or Air Force, validates the model.
Competitor response: If Anduril, Kratos, or AeroVironment announce capacity expansions in the same 2,000+ unit per month range within six months, it confirms that Helsing's factory is setting a new production benchmark rather than just filling a gap.
Ukraine replenishment orders: A large-scale US or NATO contract to replace HX-2s expended in Ukraine would provide the first demand signal independent of its own marketing.
