The factory will produce undersea autonomous vehicles.

German defence tech firm Helsing will open an advanced manufacturing facility in the UK, a UK Government announcement revealed on 8 July. 

Located in Plymouth in the Southwest, the ‘resilience factory’, as Helsing dubs it, forms part of a GBP350 million investment into the UK by the firm that will see Helsing supply “allied navies with AI-powered miniature submarines”, the UK Government said.  

These submarines, known as the SG-1 Fathom and set to be built at the site according to a LinkedIn post from the firm, are AI-powered autonomous undersea vehicles designed to detect threats and protect critical undersea infrastructure.  

Helsing supports the UK Government’s defence ambitions, Helsing’s UK Managing Director Ned Baker added, and has confidence in the UK Government’s “commitment to new technological solutions for defence”.

While the first in the UK, Helsing already has an existing resilience factory in southern Germany with plans to build another, according to the firm’s website. These factories are designed for high throughput and scale equipment production in “volumes that are unprecedented for modern autonomous drones”.

“Helsing will build resilience factories across the European continent, thereby unlocking distributed production capacities for critical defence assets, with each location gaining the ability to source from local supply chains and workforces”, the firm states.

News of this latest factory also comes on the heels of a Series D funding round for the drone manufacturer announced on 17 June, which saw it raise EUR600 million.

DSEI Gateway News is part of DSEI UK and the broader Clarion Defence portfolio. 
Enjoy reading this article?  Click here to read more about our upcoming DSEI membership offering...