Rheinmetall, Mercedes and a printing-press maker bolt German factories onto drone startups

Three ILA Berlin deals in one day put Germany's idle industrial capacity behind drone startups, from a 250-kilogram cargo hauler to interceptors already flying in Ukraine.

Rheinmetall, Munich-area startup ERC System and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia signed a memorandum of understanding at the ILA Berlin air show on June 10 to prepare production of the Victor U250 heavy-lift cargo drone, Reuters reported. Mercedes-Benz signed its own memorandum with interceptor maker Tytan Technologies the same day, and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, a printing-press manufacturer, said a counter-drone agreement with a Ukrainian firm would follow on Thursday.

The Victor U250 takes off vertically on hybrid-electric power and cruises near 250 km/h, hauling up to 250 kilograms over 300 kilometers. Rheinmetall's release targets series production in 2028, with a three-digit number of new jobs in North Rhine-Westphalia by 2029. Most drones manage payloads up to about 20 kilograms and cargo helicopters only take over above 500, ERC co-chief Maximilian Oligschläger told Reuters, so nothing unmanned serves the band the Victor aims at. In February the company, an IABG subsidiary, flew a 2.7-ton crewed variant with a 16-meter wingspan.

Mercedes's contribution rests on the G-Class and the Sprinter, both already in Bundeswehr service. Der Spiegel wrote that the planned Drone Defender system mounts Tytan's radars and interceptor launchers on G-Class vehicles, with Sprinter vans as mobile command posts. "The threat level is real; every day we witness overflights of critical German and European infrastructure," Tytan chief executive Balazs Nagy said. Founded in late 2023 by two Technical University of Munich graduates, Tytan supplies interceptors to Ukrainian units and holds a Bundeswehr facility-protection contract, Militarnyi noted. Backers including the NATO Innovation Fund have put in about 46 million euros, and a Munich plant opening this summer is meant to reach 3,000 interceptors a month by December.

Heideldruck's Onberg venture with US-Israeli firm Ondas plans to distribute counter-drone systems from Brandenburg, then build them there. Chief executive Jürgen Otto put the defense opportunity at 300 million euros a year for the 2-billion-euro machinery group.

European carmakers remain below pre-pandemic sales volumes, CNBC noted, and Germany's defense ministry told the network on Wednesday it runs a matchmaking platform pairing civilian manufacturers with defense startups; Renault and Volkswagen reached similar arrangements this spring. The nearest test of the model is Tytan's December production target, with ERC's 2028 series date behind it.