Vector (and Trinity) at Calw

Quantum Systems, founded in January 2015 in Gilching near Munich by former Bundeswehr helicopter pilot Florian Seibel, makes fixed-wing vertical-takeoff tactical reconnaissance and mapping drones. Its Vector is a fixed-wing VTOL tactical ISR drone introduced in September 2020 on the Auterion flight stack, with onboard AI for intelligence work including combat-reported acoustic artillery-detection payloads and sold to governments, while its Trinity is a more dual-use foam-fuselage mapping and survey drone with up to ninety minutes of endurance.

Its fielding is the cleanest of the new-defense set: Germany-financed Vector deliveries to Ukraine reached 619 units by April 2025, up from 438 across three orders in 2022 and 2023, alongside 100 donated Trinity drones, and the company raised a 160-million-euro Series C in May 2025 to become the first European dual-use unicorn, followed by a 180-million-euro round in November 2025 at roughly a 3-billion-euro, 3.5-billion-dollar valuation led by Balderton with backers including Thiel Capital, Airbus Ventures, and Porsche SE. The registry records it at commercial maturity on the strength of hundreds of units fielded in active combat under government financing plus an established commercial survey business.

On AI substance the Vector is genuinely AI-powered ISR with concrete capabilities like acoustic artillery detection, but it is a reconnaissance platform whose autonomy is processing-grade rather than strike-grade, a lower autonomy ambition than Anduril or Helsing and much of it company-described. A plan to build 400 Vector drones in Ukraine, revenue projections of 300 to 500 million euro, and a possible 2026 IPO are recorded as claimed but not verified.