Torden · Trondheim, Norway
Enabling hypersonic defence of critical infrastructure.
We build mass-produced Mach 5 ramjet interceptors to kill hypersonic ballistic missiles. Sub-million a round, instead of today’s multi-million-dollar scarcity.
Fossekall liquid engine at full thrust
on the Propulse NTNU test stand
01 The gap
Air defence is out of magazine depth.
According to NATO, less than 5% of the air defence capacity needed is met. The interceptors that do exist cost millions per round and are rationed by years-long lead times. In war or peace, Europe is rearming itself for the next decade, and defending against hypersonic ballistic missiles takes interceptors that exist in numbers that matter.
<5%
of the air defence capacity needed is met
According to NATO
$4M
per round for the fielded standard, PAC-3 MSE
FY26 US Army budget request
24–30 mo
lead time keeps the fielded standard rationed
PAC-3 MSE
02 Product
A Mach 5 ramjet interceptor, built for magazine depth.
A solid booster gets it to speed. A liquid ramjet keeps it at Mach 5, so it arrives at the intercept with energy to spend in the turn, where manoeuvring ballistic targets defeat coasting interceptors. Designed from day one for mass production. The vehicle is at design stage: the ramjet has not been hotfired and no interceptor has flown. First hotfire, first guided flight and first intercept are the gates ahead.
/ 01
Boost, then sustain
A solid commits all its energy at launch. Our ramjet keeps thrusting through the endgame, so we arrive with margin and spend it in the turn.
/ 02
Built to manoeuvre
Sustained Mach 5 gives one interceptor the reach and endgame energy of systems many times its price, against targets that manoeuvre.
/ 03
Designed for mass production
Magazine depth is the product. Every design decision is made for volume manufacture, not one-off arsenals.
03 Heritage
We have done this before.
Before Torden, our team designed, built and launched three rockets, Fossekall, Heimdall and Bifrost, and tested four liquid rocket engines at 500–800 kgf (5–8 kN) of thrust through the Propulse NTNU programme. The propulsion, test discipline and launch operations this company needs already exist in this team.
3
rockets designed, built & launched
4
liquid engines built & hotfired
500–800 kgf
thrust class of our engines
3
hotfire campaigns led end to end
04 Defensibility
You can’t clone a missile with AI.
- Proprietary IP & hardware
- Flight heritage & licensing
- Long-term contracts
05 Founders
Built by the people who flew the rockets.
Adrian Wilhelmsen
Co-founder & CEO
Computational fluid dynamics engineer and lead telemetry engineer on flight vehicles at Propulse NTNU; R&D engineer at Radionor Communications. Left NTNU’s MSc in Applied Physics & Mathematics in his third year to build Torden.
adrian@torden.ai
William Dugan
Co-founder & CTO
Chief Propulsion Engineer at Propulse NTNU for three years, where he led three engine development and hotfire campaigns end to end. Previously technical engineer at Fugro. MSc in Physics, NTNU.
william@torden.ai
06 Contact
Talk to the founders.
Investors, partners, engineers: mail lands directly with the two of us.