PARIS, Feb 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - German defence firm Helsing said Thursday it will manufacture 6,000 of its new AI-enabled HX-2 strike drones for Ukraine and that it had completed its first facility for mass producing the munitions.

The use of drones in the conflict in Ukraine has radically changed warfare, giving military forces greater surveillance and strike capabilities, but Europe has struggled to ramp up domestic production.

Helsing said the Resilience Factory in southern Germany is the first of its "high-efficiency production facilities designed to provide nation states with local and sovereign manufacturing capacities" for drones.

It said it plans to build facilities across Europe that have the capability to scale manufacturing rates to tens of thousands of units in case of a conflict.

The facility in southern Germany has an initial monthly production capacity of more than 1,000 HX-2 strike drones, which were unveiled at the end of last year.

The company said that onboard-AI helps the drones capable of travelling 100 kilometres (60 miles) resist electronic warfare measures and to be operated in swarms. 

"HX-2 has been designed to be mass-producible and at significantly lower unit cost than conventional systems, thus filling a growing capability gap in modern land warfare," the company said in a statement.

The HX-2 order follows an order by Ukraine for 4,000 of Helsing's HF-1 attack drones, which are in the process of being delivered, the company said.