STARK unveiled Virtus in mid-April 2025, describing it as shaped by feedback gathered from the Ukrainian military during Russia's ongoing invasion.^4,5 The system is one of two loitering munitions selected by the German government for large-scale procurement under its post-2022 rearmament program, alongside the Berlin rival Helsing HX-2 Karma.^6,7 This article covers Virtus's disclosed specifications, its rapid and occasionally troubled development history, and how its published figures compare with those of its closest German competitor.

Virtus is built around an electric VTOL airframe, reported in early coverage as roughly 2 meters long with an X-shaped wing and rotor arrangement; STARK has not published a full, independently confirmed set of airframe dimensions, and figures circulating in secondary sources for wingspan and height have not been corroborated closely enough to state with confidence here.^4,14 The propulsion system is fully electric, which STARK and independent outlets describe as enabling comparatively quiet operation, and the airframe can take off and land vertically from unprepared ground without a catapult, launch tube, or runway.^1,4

STARK's own published figures for cruise speed (120 km/h) and maximum dive/attack speed (250 km/h) have stayed consistent across the April 2025 unveiling, STARK's product page, and its February 2026 Bundeswehr contract announcement.^1,4,9 Range and endurance figures have not stayed as consistent: STARK's initial April 2025 materials and contemporary press coverage described a roughly 100 km autonomous engagement radius and about 60 minutes of flight time, while STARK's own systems page and its February 2026 press release announcing the Bundeswehr framework contract instead state a range of "over 130 kilometres" and endurance of "up to 90 minutes."^4,1,9 This article treats the more recent, contract-era figures as the current specification and notes the earlier ones as the values published at launch.

The munition carries a modular payload of up to 5 kg. Rather than shipping with a fixed warhead, Virtus airframes are "married" to a specific warhead just before launch, letting a unit select a shaped-charge design against armored targets or a fragmentation design against unprotected ones from the same airframe stock.^1,8 On 22 December 2025, STARK and the German warhead specialist TDW — an MBDA Deutschland company — announced a live-fire test validating a new shaped-charge design, the LION STRIKE 110, against armor fitted with explosive reactive armor, describing it as the first live warhead firing by any loitering-munition manufacturer in Germany; the companies target integrating the design for operational delivery by the end of 2026.⁸

Targeting and navigation rely on onboard machine-learning models for identifying and tracking targets, combined with visual odometry, satellite imagery, and landmark-based reference points intended to keep the munition oriented without GPS in electronically contested airspace.^1,13 STARK's proprietary Minerva software layer is described as letting a single operator coordinate multiple Virtus airframes as a swarm, and STARK markets an "EW-resilient data link" using several communication layers together.^1,14 Public reporting on operator-level control is not fully consistent: STARK's own product materials emphasize independent, algorithm-driven target location, identification, and engagement, while other accounts describe an operator confirming a target before terminal impact; this article does not resolve that distinction and presents Virtus's autonomy claims only as described in the sources cited here.^1,13

STARK was founded in Berlin in 2024 by Florian Seibel, who had previously co-founded the reconnaissance-drone company Quantum-Systems; Seibel started STARK specifically to build armed systems after Quantum-Systems' investors would not permit weapons integration on that company's airframes.³ Johannes Schaback joined as chief technology officer, and in October 2025 STARK hired Uwe Horstmann — a general partner at venture-capital firm Project A and a reserve Bundeswehr officer — as chief executive, while Seibel remained a founding investor without a day-to-day operating role.^2,3

Virtus Development Timeline

• 2024 — STARK founded in Berlin by Florian Seibel, following his earlier work at Quantum-Systems
• 2025-04 — Virtus (OWE-V) unveiled publicly, described as shaped by feedback from Ukrainian forces
• 2025-08 — STARK raises 62 million USD led by Sequoia Capital at a 500 million USD valuation
• 2025-10 — Financial Times reports Virtus failed to score a confirmed hit in four live-fire NATO trials in Germany and the UK, including a crash and a battery failure during Kenya's Haraka Storm exercise
• 2025-10 — Uwe Horstmann becomes STARK's chief executive
• 2025-12-22 — STARK and TDW validate the LION STRIKE 110 shaped-charge warhead on Virtus in a live-fire test
• 2026-02-25 — German Bundestag budget committee approves an initial 268 million euro Virtus framework contract, with options worth up to 1 billion euros more
• 2026-06-23 — STARK raises 500 million euros led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund at a valuation above 3.5 billion euros

STARK unveiled Virtus publicly in mid-April 2025, presenting it as a system whose design had been directly shaped by feedback gathered from the Ukrainian military during Russia's invasion.^4,5 Independent reporting has since described STARK delivering Virtus units into Ukrainian combat units at the company's own expense rather than under a state contract, and STARK has said the configuration used in Ukraine differs operationally from the version put through NATO trials, since the Ukrainian setup pairs a separate reconnaissance drone with the strike munition rather than relying on Virtus's own onboard targeting alone.^13,12

In October 2025, the Financial Times reported that Virtus failed to score a confirmed hit across four live-fire attempts during trials involving British and German forces, with one airframe losing control and crashing into a forest in Germany and another suffering a battery failure after impact during the British Army's Haraka Storm exercise in Kenya.^11,12 STARK subsequently said the exercises were experimental in nature, that the company had completed more than a dozen missions successfully in Kenya, and that the reported failures reflected "normal iteration" typical of early-stage weapons development rather than a defect specific to the production design; sources familiar with the German procurement process said the reported outcomes would not affect STARK's pending government contracts.¹²

That assessment proved accurate: on 25 February 2026, the German Bundestag's budget committee approved an initial 268 million euro framework contract for STARK to deliver Virtus to the Bundeswehr, with contractual options that could add up to 1 billion euros more pending further technical validation and parliamentary approval.^7,9 An identical initial contract value went to Helsing for its competing HX-2 Karma munition, while Rheinmetall received a separate contract for its own loitering munition; STARK's press release accompanying the announcement cited a range of "over 130 kilometres" and endurance of "up to 90 minutes," and said deliveries would begin in 2026 and continue over two years following successful qualification, supporting Germany's Brigade 45 in Lithuania.^9,6,7 STARK chief executive Uwe Horstmann called the decision a sign that Germany's defense policy "represents a new era" and "demonstrates trust in innovative companies."⁹

STARK's financing kept pace with its contract wins. The company raised 62 million USD in August 2025 in a round led by Sequoia Capital at a 500 million USD valuation, with participation from In-Q-Tel, the NATO Innovation Fund, and Project A.^2,3 By June 2026, STARK had raised a further 500 million euros in a round led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, at a valuation above 3.5 billion euros and bringing its cumulative funding past 660 million euros; the company said more than 80 percent of the new capital would go toward manufacturing and research expansion, and reported manufacturing facilities in Germany, Ukraine, Sweden, Greece, and England, including a Swindon site opened in 2025.¹⁰ The round drew scrutiny in Germany over the participation of U.S. investor Peter Thiel, whose stake Defense Minister Boris Pistorius characterized as "a one-digit percentage" with no operational access to the company, backed by a written company commitment.⁶

Virtus's closest direct comparison is the Helsing HX-2 Karma, another Berlin-founded loitering munition that received an identical initial 268 million euro German framework contract on the same 25 February 2026 decision, alongside the same up-to-1-billion-euro option structure.^7,9 Both systems emerged from Germany's post-2022 push to field large numbers of relatively low-cost strike drones quickly, both are marketed around AI-assisted autonomous targeting, and both companies have drawn comparable venture-capital attention; STARK and Helsing are frequently described together in German press coverage as the two startup faces of that procurement shift, with the more established contractor Rheinmetall named as a third supplier for its own separate loitering-munition design in the same funding round.^6,7 This article does not compare Virtus's disclosed range, speed, or payload figures directly against HX-2's, since HX-2's own specifications are not verified in the sourcing gathered for this article.

MASS Assessment

MASS scoring for the Virtus OWE-V is more skeptical than a literal reading of its own disclosed specifications would suggest — and that gap is itself the most informative part of its ten components.

Range (30) is the clearest example: STARK's own materials, cited above, claim up to 130 km and 90 minutes of endurance as of the February 2026 Bundeswehr contract, yet this archive's holistic scoring discounts that figure well below what a 130 km spec would normally earn, because — as covered in this article's own reporting — STARK's numbers have shifted upward twice in under a year (from ~100 km/60 min at the April 2025 unveiling) and an October 2025 report found Virtus failed all four live-fire NATO trials attempted. Loiter endurance (40) is discounted for the same reason: a disclosed spec is not the same as a demonstrated one. Portability (80) and technology (75) are less affected by that skepticism, since VTOL launch and electric propulsion are basic design facts rather than performance claims, and STARK's swarm-capable AI targeting genuinely reflects current technology regardless of whether it has yet proven itself in trials.

Lethality (60) and precision (70) reflect a modular, pre-launch-fitted warhead (shaped-charge or fragmentation, up to 5 kg) — a reasonable mid-tier payload, with precision capped by the same trial-record uncertainty affecting range. Sensors (50) and counter-measure resistance (45) sit low because STARK has not disclosed a specific sensor package or anti-jam feature with enough detail to score confidently. Autonomy (65) credits STARK's AI-assisted, swarm-capable design concept without fully crediting it, again pending independent verification.

Cost-effectiveness (55) is notably lower than this archive's separate 85/100 overall price-performance rating shown in the sidebar — the two diverge here more than for any other weapon in this batch, because the price-performance rating weighs STARK's genuinely low unit cost and contract terms, while the cost-effectiveness component also factors in whether that cost is actually buying demonstrated capability, which the NATO trial reporting calls into question.

What does OWE-V stand for? STARK's official designation is OWE-V, for "One-Way Effector – Vertical," referring to a one-way-attack loitering munition with vertical take-off and landing.¹ STARK markets the system under the product name Virtus.

Who makes the STARK Virtus? STARK (legal entity SKD SE), a German defense-technology startup founded in Berlin in 2024, designs and builds Virtus.^2,3

Is Virtus in service? Virtus has reportedly been used by Ukrainian combat units since 2025 in deliveries STARK funded itself, and the German government approved an initial framework contract for Bundeswehr deliveries in February 2026, with deliveries beginning later that year; it has not been described in available sourcing as having completed full Bundeswehr operational fielding as of this writing.^13,9

What is the Virtus's range and endurance? STARK's April 2025 launch materials cited roughly 100 km of engagement radius and about 60 minutes of endurance; STARK's own systems page and its February 2026 Bundeswehr contract announcement instead state a range of over 130 km and endurance of up to 90 minutes. No independent test data reviewed for this article resolves which figures are current.^4,1,9

Did Virtus fail its NATO trials? The Financial Times reported in October 2025 that Virtus failed to score a confirmed hit in four live-fire attempts with British and German forces. STARK described the incidents as normal developmental iteration rather than a fundamental design failure, and the German government proceeded with a Bundeswehr framework contract four months later.^11,12,9