7 January 2026

^{Image rights & photographer: Destinus SA}

 

Destinus is developing a new type of European defense and aerospace company. Specifically, it is developing AI-enabled autonomous systems, including drones, effectors, and counter-drone interceptors, which are engineered for contested environments and produced on an industrial scale. By combining a unified autonomy stack with deep vertical integration and robotics-driven, automotive-style manufacturing, Destinus is providing European and allied customers with reliable capabilities at speed and scale. The company's clear aim is to remove risk from soldiers and civilians, not add to it.

Destinus recently acquired Swiss AI specialist Daedalean, positioning the move as a strategic step toward stronger autonomy capabilities. Destinus wants autonomy and artificial intelligence to shape the core architecture of its platforms, rather than function as supporting technologies added later.

In written responses to MoveTheNeedle.news, Destinus founder and CEO Mikhail Kokorich is explicit about the motivation behind the deal.

“Destinus acquired Daedalean to close a critical capability gap in high-end autonomy, one that could not be credibly filled through incremental internal development.”

That gap lies at the intersection of perception, navigation, and decision-making—domains that have become central as aerospace and defense systems are increasingly expected to operate without reliable satellite navigation, uninterrupted communications, or continuous human oversight.

From certified AI to operational autonomy

Daedalean built its reputation in civil aviation by developing vision-based navigation and autonomy systems designed for certification. Its work focused on predictability, explainability, and controlled system behaviour—qualities that are difficult to reconcile with modern data-driven AI, yet essential in safety-critical environments.

For Destinus, that experience translates directly into operational relevance.

“This acquisition secures a proven team with years of experience in autonomous navigation in GNSS-denied environments, perception, recognition, mission planning, and coordinated multi-vehicle behavior.”

Equally important is how this expertise is being applied.

“Importantly, these technologies are being integrated into Destinus systems rather than remaining as standalone research projects.”

This distinction addresses a familiar problem in aerospace innovation, where advanced AI often remains confined to experimental platforms and struggles to survive real-world operational constraints.

One engineering organisation, one mandate

Rather than preserving Daedalean as an independent subsidiary or advanced research unit, Destinus has fully integrated the team into its engineering organisation, says Kokorich.

“Daedalean operates as Destinus's core center of excellence for autonomy, AI, and flight intelligence. It is fully integrated into Destinus's engineering and product teams and does not operate as a standalone unit. Its mandate is to have autonomy, perception, and decision-making integrated directly into system architectures across platforms, ensuring that AI is a first-order design driver that can be relied upon in real operational conditions.”

This organisational choice reflects an understanding that autonomy influences everything from sensor selection and redundancy strategies to human-machine interaction. Treating it as a late-stage software layer would limit its impact.

Moving beyond “AI as a feature”

Kokorich contrasts Destinus’s approach with what he sees as common practice across much of the aerospace industry.

“The majority of aerospace players treat AI as an add-on to existing platforms. Destinus's approach is fundamentally different: autonomy is a system-level capability.”

In practical terms, this means combining technologies that are often developed in isolation: perception-driven autonomy, GNSS-independent navigation, real-time decision-making, and coordinated behaviour across multiple vehicles.

“These capabilities are designed for use in contested, degraded, and denied environments.”

Just as critical is how these systems behave when conditions deteriorate.

“The focus is on more than just performance; it's also on predictable and controlled behavior under stress.”

In defense applications, reliability and bounded behaviour often matter more than peak performance. Systems that degrade in a controlled way are more valuable than those that fail unpredictably.

From navigation to counter-drone systems

Kokorich says the integration of Daedalean’s technology is already underway. One example is the deployment of visual-based navigation for GNSS-denied operation across Destinus products. Another is the Hornet anti-drone interceptor, to strengthen its detection, classification, and engagement performance. Counter-drone missions place particularly high demands on perception and decision-making, given the small size, speed, and unpredictability of targets. Improvements in classification accuracy and response time can directly influence operational effectiveness.

Looking to the future, Kokorich adds that they plan to extend the scope of integration further, to include more advanced perception, multi-sensor data fusion, and coordinated multi-vehicle behaviors, such as swarming and collaborative mission execution.

The emphasis is on reuse and scale.

“These capabilities are designed to scale across multiple platforms and product lines, creating leverage rather than one-off integrations.”

Strategic capability over short-term returns

Despite Daedalean’s origins in civil aviation, Kokorich is clear that the acquisition is not driven by short-term commercialisation.

“Daedalean's primary value lies in strategic capability and operational performance rather than short-term monetization. In the near term, existing integrations improve robustness, reliability, and mission effectiveness. In the long term, they will enable higher levels of autonomy and reduce dependence on external infrastructure and the need for constant human-in-the-loop control.”

 

Trustworthy AI as a prerequisite

One of the less visible yet strategically significant aspects of the acquisition is Daedalean’s experience with certification-grade AI.

“Daedalean's experience with certification-grade AI in civil aviation brings disciplined engineering practices focused on predictability, explainability, and control.These principles are also critical for using AI in defense and weapons systems, where autonomy must operate within defined constraints and clear human control concepts must be in place when necessary.”

Rather than viewing regulatory discipline as a limitation, Destinus frames it as an enabler.

“These principles ensure that Destinus's AI is advanced, trustworthy, and suitable for real-world operational use.”

A signal of long-term intent

The acquisition forms part of a broader investment strategy, as Kokorich explains. 

“As a fast-growing European aerospace and defense scale-up with significant revenues and active operational deployments, Destinus's CHF 180 million investment reflects a deliberate choice to reinvest in owning critical autonomy and AI technologies. It signals a long-term ambition to compete at the system level by controlling intelligence, perception, and decision-making rather than relying on external suppliers.”

In an industry where many players depend heavily on third-party autonomy stacks, that choice may prove consequential.

Compressing the autonomy timeline

By integrating Daedalean’s team and technologies directly into core product development, Destinus shortens timelines and reduces execution risk. As competitors continue to build similar capabilities internally or through partnerships, Kokorich believes they have gained a meaningful head start.

“Continued progress in perception, data fusion, and coordinated multi-vehicle autonomy will further strengthen Destinus's position relative to competitors who are still building these capabilities from scratch.”

For Europe’s aerospace and defense ecosystem, the deal illustrates how civil aviation AI expertise can be transferred—carefully and deliberately—into security-focused applications. More broadly, it reflects a shift in how autonomy is treated: not as an enhancement, but as a defining characteristic of the system itself.

How competitors approach autonomy—and where Destinus differs

Across aerospace and defense, autonomy and AI are now widely recognised as strategic capabilities. Where companies differ is not whether they invest in autonomy, but how it is integrated into platforms, organisations, and system architectures.

Large aerospace incumbents such as Airbus and BAE Systems typically develop autonomy within existing programme structures. Their work often focuses on decision-support tools, sensor fusion, and supervised autonomy layered onto established avionics and command systems. This reflects the realities of upgrading long-life platforms already in service, where autonomy must coexist with legacy architectures and certification constraints. In this model, AI enhances systems but rarely reshapes them at a fundamental level.

A different approach can be seen among US defense technology companies such as Anduril Industries and Shield AI. These firms treat autonomy software as a primary product, developing large, reusable autonomy stacks that can be deployed across multiple platforms. Shield AI, for example, focuses on AI pilots capable of operating in GPS- and communications-denied environments, while Anduril emphasises rapid software iteration and platform-agnostic deployment. In this model, autonomy is modular and transferable, designed to interface with a wide range of third-party hardware.

Destinus’s approach differs in that autonomy is not positioned as a separable layer or product. Instead, perception, navigation, and decision-making are designed into the platform architecture itself. By integrating Daedalean directly into its engineering organisation, Destinus is embedding autonomy at system level rather than interfacing it through defined software boundaries. This reduces modularity but allows tighter coupling between sensors, flight control, and decision logic.

Another group of competitors includes unmanned systems manufacturers such as Baykar and AeroVironment. These companies have achieved scale and operational deployment by combining partial autonomy with persistent human-in-the-loop control. Navigation, targeting, and mission execution often remain dependent on external infrastructure and remote operators. Autonomy is present, but typically constrained to specific functions rather than spanning the full mission lifecycle.

A further point of differentiation lies in engineering discipline. Many autonomy programmes across the sector prioritise rapid capability development and operational deployment, with explainability and behavioural guarantees addressed later. By acquiring Daedalean, Destinus is explicitly importing certification-grade AI practices from civil aviation, where predictability and controlled behaviour are foundational requirements. This shapes how autonomy is designed, tested, and integrated from the outset.

In summary, Destinus is not unique in pursuing autonomy, but it is distinctive in where autonomy sits in the system hierarchy. While others layer autonomy onto platforms or package it as a transferable software stack, Destinus is treating autonomy as a defining architectural choice—one that influences platform design, organisational structure, and long-term capability development.