German defense startup Hypersonica announced a major milestone in its effort to deliver Europe’s first independently developed hypersonic strike system by 2029, following its inaugural hypersonic test flight in Norway. During the trial, the company’s prototype missile exceeded Mach 6 and traveled more than 300 kilometers.
Headquartered near Munich, Hypersonica said it will conduct additional test flights to showcase sophisticated flight control and maneuvering capabilities at hypersonic speeds. The company described itself as the first privately financed European defense firm to successfully achieve hypersonic flight, a field traditionally dominated by government-backed, long-term classified programs.
The startup is pursuing a modular design strategy to enable rapid upgrades and drastically shorten development timelines from years to months, while reducing costs by over 80% compared with traditional development methods. By comparison, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office reported in 2023 that hypersonic missiles could be roughly one-third more expensive than ballistic missiles with comparable range and maneuverable payloads.
In a statement to Defense News, Hypersonica said it aims to provide a sovereign European strike capability that is both affordable and timely, even for nations with limited defense budgets. The company added that Europe cannot afford decades-long development cycles or massive spending, and that its rapid, iterative engineering approach is intended to address that gap.
Hypersonic weapons are generally defined as vehicles that travel at least five times the speed of sound while retaining the ability to maneuver in the atmosphere, with extreme heat generation being one of the primary engineering challenges. France has been researching hypersonic technology since the 1990s and is currently developing the ASN4G air-launched nuclear hypersonic missile. The United Kingdom also launched a £1 billion, seven-year program in 2024 to advance domestic hypersonic missile capabilities.
Hypersonica highlighted that it progressed from design to launch in just nine months, arguing this should reshape expectations around the time and cost required to develop such technologies. The Feb. 3 test flight from the Andøya Space site in northern Norway reportedly performed as planned, with all systems functioning normally and performance verified down to individual subsystems. The company said it uses military-grade components and collected valuable data to guide future high-speed strike system development and threat analysis.
European hypersonic research has largely focused on defensive measures against potential adversaries, particularly Russia, through initiatives such as Hydis2 and Hydef. The European Defence Fund’s 2026 program earmarks €168 million for hypersonic defense and interception research.
Hypersonica also disclosed that it raised €23 million in a Series A funding round led by Plural, with backing from Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation and additional investments from General Catalyst and 201 Ventures. In the United States, a rival startup, Castelion—founded by former SpaceX executives—has secured more than $450 million to pursue low-cost hypersonic weapons.
The company was founded in December 2023 by Oxford PhD graduates Philipp Kerth and Marc Ewenz, who serve as CEO and CTO, respectively. Its stated objective is to field a European hypersonic strike capability by 2029.
