HERAKLES Defense is a Munich-based defense-tech startup developing an autonomous counter-UAS interceptor against Class I first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze drones. The system is a quadcopter interceptor under 2 kg that neutralizes its target by collision, without a warhead. It combines acoustic sensing with onboard vision to detect and track targets, and operates without a remote pilot. Guidance uses an onboard camera and inertial measurement unit, which is intended to allow GPS-independent operation under electronic warfare, including against fiber-optic-guided FPV drones that radio jammers cannot disrupt.

The company was founded in 2025 by Bryan Marcel Gundrum and Luca Hemmerle, and describes itself as ITAR-free by design and made in Europe. In June 2026 the system autonomously intercepted a moving FPV target drone. The result was reproduced across multiple runs and had been predicted in advance by the company's own six-degree-of-freedom simulation. The operating entity is a civil-law partnership (GbR) that is in preparation for conversion to a GmbH.

HERAKLES positions its approach against the limits of RF jammers, guns, nets and guided missiles for low-cost FPV threats, with a focus on frontline force protection and on critical infrastructure such as airports, harbors and energy facilities. The company is at pre-seed stage. In August 2026 it said it was raising a pre-seed round, and in October 2026 it was selected to join the TUM Venture Labs Aerospace/Defense Lab.