Covenant opens 10,000-square-meter German factory to build long-range weapons for Europe
The facility will manufacture Anthem for NATO allies as the company seeks to establish a largely European supply chain and eventually produce thousands of systems a year.
Two years after setting out to establish a presence in Europe, defense technology startup Covenant has opened a more than 10,000-square-meter production facility in Leipzig, Germany, where it plans to manufacture its Anthem long-range precision strike system for NATO allies.
The facility, which Covenant says is its largest manufacturing footprint to date, was inaugurated on Monday in the presence of Saxony Minister-President Michael Kretschmer, State Secretary Johannes Steiniger and Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, Chief of the German Army, as well as partners from Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
The company says Anthem will be produced in Leipzig “for Europe,” with production supported by a European supply chain. Less than 5% of the components in the version of Anthem produced at the German facility come from outside Europe, with Covenant aiming to eventually bring that figure down to zero.
The emphasis on local manufacturing comes as European governments seek greater control over their defense supply chains and face questions about their dependence on weapons produced outside the continent. Germany has been evaluating Covenant as part of a broader search for long-range strike capabilities and alternatives to relying heavily on U.S.-made systems.
Covenant was founded in 2024 by Israeli-American entrepreneur Michael Kaufman and Ofir Dayan and operated largely in secrecy for much of its first two years. The company emerged from stealth last month after raising more than $250 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, Aleph and Lightspeed. Its latest financing valued the company at more than $1 billion.
At the center of the company is Anthem, a long-range, heavy-payload weapon system that Covenant says is designed to be manufactured in large numbers and at a fraction of the cost of comparable legacy systems.
The company has not publicly disclosed Anthem’s range, but says the system carries a payload of more than 200 kilograms and is designed to strike targets on land and at sea. Covenant has booked approximately $150 million in orders to date, including qualification, research and development and production contracts, with additional awards expected.
Covenant has said it ultimately aims to reach a production rate of 5,000 missiles a year during 2028 in Leipzig. The company has already secured its first European contract and is in discussions with additional potential customers, although it has not disclosed the countries involved.
The company is pursuing a similar expansion in the United States. Covenant opened a 105,000-square-foot facility in Dallas in September, with serial production expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027 and an eventual target of 5,000 systems annually. It also operates a research, development and manufacturing facility in northern Israel.
“Two years ago, almost nobody knew Covenant existed in Europe,” Ari Goodman, Covenant’s head of business development for Europe, wrote on LinkedIn on Tuesday. “Today, we have a team, customers, partners, a European supply chain and a factory here.”
