Hensoldt Delivers the First Three CAIRAS Missile-Warning Sets for Helsing's CA-1 Europa
Oberkochen, 27 July 2026
Key points
- Hensoldt said on 27 July it is delivering its CAIRAS compact infrared missile-warning system for the first time, the first three sets going aboard Helsing's CA-1 Europa collaborative combat aircraft
- CAIRAS uses dual-colour infrared to detect and locate incoming missiles passively, without emitting; it pairs a central processing unit with up to seven next-generation infrared sensors for 360-degree spherical coverage
- It is the first integration of Hensoldt's Airborne Missile Protection System on an uncrewed aircraft, and the first disclosed order in self-protection and passive optronics under the two firms' February 2026 strategic partnership, which also covers radar and electronic warfare
- The programme around it has moved the other way: after a market survey the German defence ministry concluded that no available system meets its requirements without further development, and that first operational capability by 2029 is not achievable on the intended procurement route
Hensoldt announced the first delivery of its CAIRAS missile-warning system on 27 July, with three sets going to Helsing's CA-1 Europa — a firm sensor order sitting inside a German collaborative-combat-aircraft programme whose 2029 date the ministry has just conceded is not achievable as planned.
The technical significance is the platform class rather than the sensor. Missile-warning suites were built for crewed aircraft, where the output feeds a pilot and a countermeasures dispenser; on an uncrewed collaborative aircraft the same detection has to feed autonomy directly. Hensoldt is integrating CAIRAS into its AMPS-MR self-protection suite, which combines the missile warner with the Kalætron radar warning receiver and a decoy dispenser.
The quantities the German programme might eventually carry have been discussed publicly at between roughly 400 and 500 aircraft, the lower figure from a Rheinmetall analyst call in 2025 and never confirmed by the ministry. Helsing unveiled the CA-1 Europa's full-size design study in September 2025 and has pointed to a first flight in 2027.
The subsystem order is firmer than the programme it sits in. A disclosed integration on one side, a procurement route under reconsideration on the other, is the characteristic shape of Europe's collaborative-combat-aircraft efforts this year: suppliers contract against a platform whose quantity, route and in-service date remain open. It is also the second programme in a month where Hensoldt supplies the sensing while the effector or airframe comes from a start-up — the other being Fire Point's Freyja interceptor, where it provides the TRML-4D radar. As Großwald Signal No. 110 put it, the incumbent sensor houses are joining around new entrants rather than leading. The marker is procedural: whether the ministry names a replacement procurement route, and what date replaces 2029.
Related · Helsing's CA-1 Europa
Helsing moves from software into hardware with its Area 9 lab and RX-1 robot (1 June 2026)
