Alpine Eagle Expands Sentinel Counter-Drone Production With Munich Facility

Alpine Eagle, a counter-drone defence technology company, has announced plans to significantly scale production of its Sentinel system as demand for rapid, scalable air defence grows across Europe. Central to the announcement is the opening of a new 2,000-square-metre production facility near Munich, intended to boost manufacturing capacity for Alpine Eagle's interceptors and support its European expansion efforts.

The Sentinel platform integrates multiple sensing technologies—including radar, radio-frequency scanning, and optical or infrared cameras—to detect and track aerial threats, including autonomous drone swarms. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms enable the system to classify drones and assess their behavior in real time, fusing data from various sensors into a unified operational picture. This layered, software-defined approach allows for coordinated, rapid responses across wide areas.

First adopted by the German Bundeswehr in 2024, Sentinel has since been contracted by three additional European customers, and Alpine Eagle has expanded operations in the UK and the Netherlands. The company has also participated in defence innovation initiatives such as Project Vanaheim with US and UK armed forces and conducted extensive field trials in Ukraine—a key proving ground for counter-drone systems facing constant, high-volume drone attacks and GPS disruption.

CEO and co-founder Jan-Hendrik Boelens highlights the urgency facing European defence ministries as recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East underscore a costly disparity: traditional air defence systems often rely on expensive interceptors to dismantle waves of low-cost drones. This economic imbalance is shifting government procurement from experimental pilot programmes to full-scale acquisition, with rapid deployment a top priority.

To support scaling, Alpine Eagle partners with Dutch UAV manufacturer DeltaQuad, integrating the DeltaQuad Evo platform into its systems. This collaboration enables rapid production through established manufacturing processes in the Netherlands, allowing the company to deliver functional counter-drone systems within about four weeks of a signed contract.

Alpine Eagle has grown from 12 employees in 2024 to 50 in 2026, with plans to double that number within the year. The expansion is accompanied by a strong emphasis on European supply chain sovereignty, with the company deliberately sourcing and manufacturing a significant share of its components within Europe. Boelens notes that recent shocks—from the COVID-19 pandemic to ongoing conflicts—have exposed the fragility of global defence supply chains, fueling a renewed focus on European industrial resilience.

What distinguishes Alpine Eagle is its framing of counter-drone defence as a coordination and integration problem rather than a standalone hardware challenge. By building a software-defined, sensor-fused network, the company seeks to manage large volumes of simultaneous threats—especially as both offensive and defensive capabilities become increasingly autonomous.

Boelens foresees a continued shift in air defence strategy: while high-end systems such as Patriot and THAAD remain vital against advanced threats, scalable counter-drone layers are needed to manage mass attacks by low-cost, small drones. Rather than obsoleting existing systems, the evolving landscape calls for a rebalanced, layered defence structure in which AI-driven solutions like Sentinel play a pivotal role.

As European militaries and critical infrastructure operators face mounting drone threats, Alpine Eagle’s scaling production marks a significant step toward faster, more adaptive air defence. According to Boelens, "our mission is to ensure democracies have the tools they need to defend their airspace in this new era of warfare."

Source: tech.eu