Altra

Altra is the battlefield software platform built by Helsing , the Munich-based defence AI firm founded in 2021 by Torsten Reil, Niklas Köhler and Gundbert Scherf. It is the product the company was originally formed around: a sensor-fusion and electronic-warfare layer that takes raw feeds from radars, optical sensors, signals receivers and other emitters across a force, and turns them into a single live tactical picture for operators. Altra entered operational evaluation with European customers shortly after the company’s founding and now sits at the centre of Helsing’s pitch as a software-first defence prime for Germany, the United Kingdom and other NATO members.

The technical core is edge inference. Rather than streaming sensor data back to a centralised cloud, Altra runs neural networks on hardware co-located with the sensor, classifying signals and detecting targets in milliseconds and at the bandwidth-constrained tactical edge. Helsing has described the system as platform-agnostic — designed to be retrofitted onto existing aircraft, ground vehicles and ships rather than tied to a single chassis. The electronic-warfare workload is the headline capability: Altra ingests the dense, ambiguous radio-frequency environment of a contested battlespace and labels emitters faster than rule-based EW suites, with the model continuously retrained as new threat signatures appear. Optical and radar tracks are fused into the same operating picture, so an operator sees one consolidated set of contacts rather than parallel, contradictory feeds.

The most public deployment to date is on the Eurofighter Typhoon. In 2022 Helsing was contracted to develop the EW capability for the Typhoon as part of a broader avionics modernisation, working alongside the four-nation programme partners. Saab integrated Altra into the Gripen E in 2023 to give the fighter an AI-driven electronic warfare layer, and Helsing has confirmed deployments with the Bundeswehr and the British Army. The company has also shipped its tooling to Ukraine, where its software has been used to support reconnaissance and strike workflows against Russian forces — the Ukrainian theatre has functioned, in effect, as Altra’s most demanding live test environment.

Helsing has raised more than €800 million at a reported valuation north of €5 billion on the strength of Altra and the autonomous strike platforms that have grown out of it, including the HX-2 loitering munition and the company’s recent work on uncrewed combat aircraft. Altra remains the connective tissue: the perception and command layer that the rest of the catalogue plugs into.