Mercedes set to partner with drone defence start-up Tytan
German carmaker to provide vehicles for interception of threats that pose a growing concern for Europe
Mercedes-Benz is set to partner with a start-up aimed at protecting European critical infrastructure from hostile drones, making it the latest struggling German car giant to expand in the defence sector.
The Stuttgart-based auto manufacturer is due to sign a memorandum of understanding with Munich-based Tytan Technologies on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Mercedes will provide vehicles for a mobile air-defence system to target small first-person view (FPV) drones that have become a growing concern for European intelligence agencies.
Officials have blamed Russia for a surge in suspicious drone activity around airports since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with sightings at military bases and other key sites.
The system, named Drone Defender, will use Mercedes’ Sprinter van and a military version of the carmaker’s G-Class SUV, already in use by the German armed forces, as the chassis for the weapon.
It will be fitted with a suite of sensors and launchers for various types of Tytan interceptor drones, which are designed to destroy suspicious unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) either by ramming into them or using a warhead to blow them up.
The companies plan to make a system that is much cheaper and more readily available than complex platforms designed for use on the frontline. Those include Rheinmetall’s Skyranger, which has proven effective at taking down Russian drones in Ukraine but costs upwards of €10mn per vehicle and has also suffered from delivery delays.
Tytan, which is already producing an interceptor drone called Metis, intends to start production of the Defender by the end of the year. The aim is to reach production levels of thousands of systems per year.
The Mercedes-Tytan partnership marks the latest tie-up between a German automotive company and players from the booming defence sector in the EU’s most populous nation, which has unleashed more than €750bn for military spending between now and the end of 2030.
It comes amid a drive by Berlin to encourage the car industry, which has faced plunging profits amid competition from China, to offer both its expertise in mass production and its excess capacity to weapons makers that are seeking to rapidly scale up in response to surging European demand.
The FT revealed in March that Volkswagen was in talks with the Israeli missile maker Rafael to produce launchers for its Iron Dome system at VW’s Osnabrück factory.
The Franco-German tank maker KNDS has also reportedly held talks with Mercedes about taking over capacity at the auto manufacturer’s van factory in Lugwigsfelde, near Berlin.
Tytan, founded in 2023 by two former students from the Technical University Munich, was commissioned by the Bundeswehr last October to develop a prototype drone-defence system to protect military bases from suspicious drones in a deal worth close to €20mn.
The partnership with Mercedes followed on from that work, one of the people familiar with the plans said. Tytan hoped to sell the system to multiple European governments, with several discussions already under way, the person added.
Mercedes-Benz declined to comment. But chief executive Ola Källenius told the Wall Street Journal last month that his company could expand its defence business, while emphasising that it would remain a niche activity.
Mercedes-Benz already produces a military version of its boxy G Class, known as the Wolf, at a factory in Graz, Austria. The carmaker has long had a hand in the defence sector, but split ways with a large part of its military production when it spun off its trucks business Daimler Truck in 2021.
The civilian version of the G Class is particularly sought after by hip-hop artists and footballers and has been one of Mercedes-Benz’s best-performing models in recent years.