Alpine Eagle expands Sentinel production as Europe races to counter drone threats
Alpine Eagle is ramping up production of its Sentinel counter-drone system as European governments accelerate spending on fast-deploying air defense tools. The Munich-based company said it will expand manufacturing capacity, deepen industrial partnerships and add new production infrastructure to meet rising military demand.
The push follows wider adoption of Sentinel across Europe. The system entered service with the German Bundeswehr in 2024, and Alpine Eagle has since won contracts with three more European customers. The company has also expanded into the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, while joining a Dutch defense innovation program. Sentinel combines airborne radar, distributed sensors and software to detect and track hostile drones over wide areas, then defeat them with airborne interceptors.
To support higher output, Alpine Eagle is partnering with Dutch UAV maker DeltaQuad to integrate Sentinel with the DeltaQuad Evo platform. The approach gives the company access to existing industrial capacity rather than relying only on in-house manufacturing. Alpine Eagle also plans to open a 2,000-square-meter facility near Munich focused on producing its proprietary interceptor systems. The company said the model will strengthen European supply chains and speed deliveries compared with traditional defense procurement cycles.
The expansion comes as low-cost drones force a rethink of air defense economics. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown how inexpensive unmanned aircraft can strain conventional systems that are far more expensive to operate. Alpine Eagle said it has tested Sentinel in Ukraine under large-scale drone attack conditions and in GPS-denied environments, aiming to prove reliability under operational pressure. The company has grown from 12 employees in 2024 to 50 in 2026 and expects to reach 100 later this year. Backed by more than 10 million euros in funding, Alpine Eagle’s growth underscores a broader defense shift toward counter-drone systems that can be fielded quickly, scaled in volume and used at lower cost.