Mercedes-Benz is leaning deeper into defence. The carmaker has signed a memorandum of understanding with TYTAN Technologies, a Munich counter-drone startup, to develop vehicle-based systems that detect and shoot down hostile drones, built on its G-Class SUV and Sprinter van.
Mercedes calls the defence sector “a strategic growth field”.
The deal, signed at the ILA Berlin air show in the presence of Germany’s economy minister, pairs Mercedes’s vehicle platforms with TYTAN’s sensors, AI, and interceptor drones, and the two showed a prototype of a joint vehicle-mounted system at the event.
For now it is exploratory: the agreement sets a framework to “evaluate possible applications” and pursue “later industrial implementation,” within export-control and defence-law limits, rather than a firm production order.
The carmaker-to-defence shift
