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Europe’s First AI Fighter Jet Took Off Over the Baltic Sea and This Could Soon Change the Face of Warfare
The AI logged a million virtual flight hours in three days. No pilot could compete.
by
Tibi Puiu
July 10, 2025
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A Swedish JAS 39 Gripen takes off from Bodö airport. Credit: Public Domain.
This May, high above the Baltic Sea, a Swedish Gripen E fighter jet sliced through the air, with no pilot at the controls.
During two exercises conducted in May and June, the jet flew under the command of AI software developed by the high-flying defense startup Helsing. A safety pilot sat in the cockpit, but didn’t need to intervene. The test flights marked a milestone for the Munich-based defence tech company and a potential turning point for European military aviation.
Stephanie Lingemann, senior director at Helsing, called the shift “revolutionary.” Speaking at the company’s Munich office, she said that the company’s Centaur AI system gained the equivalent of one million flight hours in just 72 hours. That’s more than a hundred times what a human pilot might accumulate across an entire career. “You can get to superhuman performance very quickly,” she explained to the
Financial Times. “And you are not having to send your pilots into dangerous situations.”