A German defense startup, with financial backing from American defense magnate Peter Thiel among others, finally got to demonstrate the capabilities of its Virtus bomb-drones at two separate events, one for the British military and one of the Germans. Sadly for them, the demos didn’t go well: of the four total attempts to strike a target, exactly zero did so. All the drones missed, and one even managed to light its battery on fire and completely burn up, all in front of the potential clients judging which drone company.
The Financial Times broke the scoop, detailing the woes of the startup, named Stark. (Side note: Why are all these defense startups named after geek references? At least this one’s Marvel, not another Tolkien one.) On paper, the Virtus drone sounds pretty capable. According to Stark, it can fly at 75 mph, stay powered for up to an hour, dive at a target at 155 mph and can carry 11 pound bomb. What’s really neat is that it’s designed to seek its own targets with AI, so it will work even if it’s jammed; if it doesn’t find any targets, it’s programmed to fly itself back home.
That’s great! Trouble is, it missed all its strikes. Oops. For reference, rival startup Helsing (again with the geek references) slew five targets at the British demo, and fully 17 at the German one. One can only assume they were armed with garlic and holy water. Neither military has awarded any contracts yet, but if it were my military, I think I’d go with Helsing.
A boom market in Europe
Somehow, Stark managed to add insult to its own injury: it handed out specialty challenge coins at the British event, which featured an outline of Europe… without Britain on it. Oops. Safe to say the demos didn’t quite go as the startup hoped. In fairness, engineering often has to suffer through failed prototypes to get to something worthwhile; sometimes, that can get embarrassing. Stark was only just founded last year, so this might be teething pains.
The Virtus drone certainly still has some growing to do. In the meantime, the defense industry in Europe is booming right now, with even Porsche getting in on the action. Russia continues to menace the continent through its invasion of Ukraine and brazen penetrations into NATO airspace; meanwhile, the U.S. may not always be a reliable partner. So Stark is certainly in the right industry at the right time. Just like Tony, Stark may just need a couple upgrades before it suits back up. That, or the company’s been overpromising and underdelivering. Startups never do that, right?
