Five loitering munitions go into field trials in Portugal from 28 September, in a European Defence Agency contest called the Sentinel Strike Challenge. The finalists compete for €1.8 million in prizes. The agency expects to name the winners in 2027.
The five are Helsing of Germany, Destinus of the Netherlands, C-Astral of Slovenia, UAVision of Portugal and Spirit Aeronautical Systems of Greece. The agency chose them in July from more than 140 expressions of interest, and paid each €30,000 for reaching the final.
A test, not an order
The trials sit inside EU OPEX26, the agency’s experimentation campaign at the Santa Margarida training area. More than 200 innovators, military experts and end users take part, with more than 40 companies. Field experiments across domains follow on 7 and 8 October, then a demonstration day on 14 October.
A prize buys evidence, not weapons. Nothing in the agency’s release commits any government to buy what wins. What it does give buyers is five results from the same ground, on the same days.
Helsing’s record
Helsing’s drones have already had their performance publicly disputed. Germany financed 6,000 of its HX-2 drones for Ukraine, announced in February 2025. In January 2026 the two countries suspended further HX-2 orders after a German army assessment reported aircraft that failed to take off. Helsing rejected the findings.
A month later, the Bundestag’s budget committee approved €540 million for loitering munitions from Helsing and Stark. The contracts and quantities have not been published. The agency has not said which of Helsing’s systems is in the trial.
