Greek Defense Tech Startup Delian Alliance Industries Latest to Join Naval Drone Competition with New Kamikaze Vehicle
Delian Alliance Industries, founded in 2021 to protect the West and its allies against autonomous warfare, has introduced its "Interceptigon series," a new line of expendable, concealed, autonomous drones designed for anti-access/area denial, particularly in coastal defense.
This series comprises two distinct autonomous platforms engineered for stealth and surprise, each tailored for specific operational environments. The first platform is a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is designed to remain camouflaged within natural terrain and launch rapid high-speed swarm attacks against land and maritime surface threats. The second platform is a stealth unmanned surface vessel (USV), optimized to lie hidden on the seabed, away from satellite or air surveillance, and capable of neutralizing naval assets during critical disembarkation or transit phases.
These USVs are ideal for littoral zones, chokepoints, and port approaches where timing and surprise are essential. "Both platforms possess substantial kinetic energy and explosive payloads. They can function independently or collaboratively as an autonomous swarm system, aiming to overwhelm larger, more sophisticated adversaries through coordination, mass, and precision," stated Dimitrios Kottas, CEO of London-headquartered Delian. "The effectors are cost-effective, scalable, and designed for attrition. This significantly shifts the cost-exchange ratio in favor of the defender."
Designed for on-demand summoning, rapid deployment, and minimal input tasking, the drones receive basic target descriptions and autonomously navigate to engage threats. The architecture facilitates scalable deployment and saturation effects on large platforms.
"The Interceptigons' capabilities are particularly relevant for front-line geographies such as the Nordics, Baltics, Southeast Asia, and the Aegean, where terrain, proximity, and threat vectors necessitate flexible, survivable, and scalable denial options," remarked Delian.
The system is currently undergoing development and testing. Final specifications, including payload configurations and swarm logic, are being refined in collaboration with end-users, with testing and iteration ongoing through 2025.
“We developed the Interceptigon series to address the realities of asymmetric warfare, where cost-efficient, autonomous systems can deliver strategic impacts disproportionate to their size and price," stated Kottas. "Our focus is not on traditional weapons but on creating autonomous denial systems for sovereign nations safeguarding their territorial integrity or exclusive economic zones (EEZ) without the luxury of strategic depth or prolonged timelines. Interceptigon emphasizes readiness, resilience, and sovereignty.”
The company’s recent announcement comes amid increasing interest in unmanned naval systems. Greece's neighbor Turkey has shown progress in this area: Turkish defense company ASELSAN’s Albatros Kamikaze unmanned surface vehicle can operate in swarms and carry a warhead based on the ATMACA anti-ship missile.
Recently ranked among Europe's top 20 defense tech startups by Dealroom, Delian secured €6 million ($6.8 million) in funding from Marathon Ventures in 2023 and is expanding into electronic warfare with new drone technologies enhancing UAV navigation without GPS.
Related:
Delian Alliance Industries Raises €6 Million to Defend Western Democracies