Five European companies will test loitering munition systems — attack drones that search for a target before striking — during the EU OPEX26 operational experimentation campaign at the Santa Margarida military training area in Portugal this autumn.
The trials form the second stage of the EDA’s Sentinel Strike Challenge, a prize contest that combines a competitive evaluation with field testing under the same competition, the European Defence Agency (EDA) announced on Wednesday.
More than 140 organisations across Europe submitted expressions of interest in the first stage, and the five highest-ranked submissions came from Helsing (Germany), Destinus (Netherlands), C-Astral (Slovenia), UAVision (Portugal) and Spirit Aeronautical Systems (Greece).
Each of the five companies will receive a €30,000 Stage 1 prize and advance to Stage 2.
During EU OPEX26, military users from EU member states will assess how the systems perform across the full mission cycle, how resilient they are under operational conditions, and how they compare when tested in the same scenarios.
What the competition is — and is not
The five selected systems will compete for a total of €1,800,000 in prizes during the field trials, the EDA said.
Selection for Stage 2 does not mean the technologies are ready to be purchased or deployed, and the challenge is not a procurement competition and does not promise contracts to its winners.
The results from the experimentation in Portugal are expected to determine the overall winners, who are due to be announced in 2027.
