European defense firm KNDS targets 2026 for dual stock exchange listing
The firm, a joint venture between Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France's Nexter, amassed an order intake of €11.2 billion ($13.1 billion) in 2024.
The firm, a joint venture between Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France's Nexter, amassed an order intake of €11.2 billion ($13.1 billion) in 2024.
After a long pause, the US Army is back on track in its search for new long-range artillery.
On the stand during the Paris Air Show, a KNDS staffer explained that this round explodes before it hits anything, releasing dozens of tungsten sub-projectiles over a wide area,
The effort falls under France’s “Larinae” project, launched in May 2022 by the French Defense Innovation Agency (AID) and the defense ministry’s procurement agency, to find domestic loitering munitions with a 50 km (31 mile) range and autonomy of at least 60 minutes.
In one of the largest Swedish weapons deals in the post-Cold War era, the government has announced a $1.97 billion contract on purchasing 44 new Leopard 2 A8 tanks and upgrading its 66 existing older Leopard 2 tanks.
Of all that happened during the Ukraine conflict in the last 12 months, the deployment of North Korean troops to the Russian border territory of Kursk stands out from the pack.
While costs and delivery dates were not made public in the statement, the Lithunian minister told the Baltic News Service that the goal is to have the tanks by 2030.
Jean-Paul Alary, currently an executive at Safran Aircraft Engines, will formally take charge of the firm on April, 1 2025, KNDS announced.
Featuring an upgraded Leopard chassis with shortened engine to increase space inside the vehicle’s compartment, EMBT features KNDS’s new EMBT-ADT 140 uncrewed turret, which includes the 140mm Ascalon gun.
“The fire power of the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is augmented by a guided missile system with which targets beyond line of sight can also be engaged while on the move," said KNDS.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
“The parties did not manage to agree on [Leopard] configuration and consequently, talks about Leonardo’s strategic participation in KNDS have also fallen short,” Frank Haun, CEO of KNDS NV, said in a company statement.
Defense ministers from both countries hailed progress on industrial workshare for a project that they say "will be a real technological breakthrough in ground combat systems.”
Qatar indicated it was going with France's VBCI back in 2017, but as no final order has been signed, competition with fellow KNDS-produced vehicle Boxer is alive and well.
Here's just a bit of what the Breaking Defense team saw on the show floor this year.