A new British defence technology company, Agon, has launched with the aim of training autonomous weapons to counter rapidly evolving drone threats using artificial intelligence (AI). Founded in the UK with offices in London and Berlin, Agon’s platform enables weapons systems to practice overcoming enemy drone swarms in a virtual environment, replicating real battle conditions and adapting to anticipated future threats.

Agon’s technology focuses on AI-backed simulation to prepare friendly forces against hostile drones, such as the Iranian-made Shahed one-way attack swarms, which have been used extensively in recent conflicts. The system allows counterdrone weapons to repeatedly engage these swarms in virtual settings at machine speed, enabling them to develop strategies for interception before encountering them in actual combat scenarios.

Tristam Constant, co-founder and chief executive and a former British soldier, described the situation as an “AI arms race” and said that Agon aims to provide infrastructure ensuring that European defence can keep pace with rapidly evolving threats. The company’s synthetic battlefield environment offers a scale and realism beyond what live trials can achieve, allowing AI models governing autonomous weapons to train against adaptable adversaries informed by current conflict intelligence.

This initiative responds in part to warnings from senior military officials about the critical need for faster integration of AI within armed forces. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the UK’s chief of the defence staff, recently cautioned that the UK risks losing future conflicts without accelerating AI adoption.

While hundreds of billions of pounds continue to be invested globally in developing autonomous systems such as drones, interceptors, and intelligent munitions, experts note that the underlying infrastructure to train and validate the AI guiding these weapons remains underdeveloped. Agon’s platform seeks to fill this gap by providing a sovereign European defence AI capability.

Junaid Hussain, Agon’s co-founder, described the coming warfare era as one defined by humans working alongside intelligent agents embedded in weapons systems. He emphasized the necessity for Europe to develop independent defence AI technologies and pointed to the recent $30 million seed investment—one of the largest early-stage defence technology funding rounds of 2026—as a sign of confidence in Agon’s approach. The company plans to use the funding to scale and refine its platform to serve European military users.