Rheinmetall builds a new plant in Szeged, Hungary, and thereby expands its footprint in the EU and NATO partner country. 

The groundbreaking ceremony on 26 March 2024 was attended by prominent guests. The Hungarian Minister of Defence, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the Mayor of Szeged, Dr. László Botka, Prof. Dr. Gábor Szabó, Managing Director of the research institute ELI-ALPS, Dr. Judit Fendler, Chancellor of the University of Szeged, Milhálffy Béla, Member of Hungarian Parliament, and many other high-ranking representatives from politics, government and industry followed the invitation of Christoph Müller, CEO of Rheinmetall’s Power Systems division, to attend the ceremony.

The new plant is Rheinmetall’s first major hybrid site, where the Group’s civil business and defence technology activities will be united under one roof. The site, which is scheduled to go into operation in August 2025, is part of Rheinmetall’s Power Systems division. 

A plant with a floor area of 15,000 square metres is to be built on an area of 85,000 square metres in the first industrialization step. Up to 300 highly qualified jobs will be created. The total investment volume is €63 million.

The Rheinmetall site in Szeged will primarily manufacture products for the Automotive business unit, including electrical components such as nanostructure capacitors, as well as products for the use of hydrogen in mobility and energy generation. In addition, around ten percent of the production area is planned for goods from the military business of Rheinmetall’s Electronic Solutions division.” 

“We are delighted to further expand our presence in Hungary, one of our home markets,” says Christoph Müller. “Szeged, the ‘City of Sunshine’, will now be the fourth Rheinmetall site after Budapest, Zalaegerszeg and Várpalota. We are grateful for and proud of the Hungarian government’s trust in us as a partner in the civil and defence industries.”

Taufkirchen/Germany, 3 April 2024 – Sensor solutions provider HENSOLDT has completed the acquisition of ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH, which was agreed last year, with effect from 2 April 2024 after receiving all official approvals. ESG is a leading platform- and manufacturer-independent system integrator as well as an established technology and innovation partner for defence and security. The acquisition adds strong design and system integration capabilities to HENSOLDT’s product and solutions business and creates a national champion in defence electronics.

HENSOLDT CEO Oliver Dörre emphasises: “The acquisition of ESG fits perfectly into our overall strategy and accelerates the development of HENSOLDT as a solution provider for defence and security. By combining the highly complementary capabilities of HENSOLDT and ESG, we are taking a decisive step towards becoming a leading European provider of seamlessly integrated solutions. This step accelerates our international growth and opens up excellent development opportunities for ESG through capital market access.”

Christoph Otten, Managing Director of ESG, also emphasises the many opportunities: “The deal gives ESG the backing of a financially strong listed company and access to international markets. As part of complete solutions, we can develop our excellent capabilities as a system integrator, technology and innovation partner even better.”

Founded in 1967, ESG is a manufacturer-independent system integrator and technology and innovation partner for defence and public safety. The company develops, integrates, supports and operates highly complex, security-relevant electronic and IT systems in the fields of defence and security. ESG has established itself as a leading German systems house and plays a key role in important current and future programmes such as FCAS (Future Combat Air System) and the F-35. The company employs around 1,400 people in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA and generated sales of around 330 million euros in 2023.

Rheinmetall House in Bristol, UK, the newly acquired Vehicle Systems International (VSI) headquarters, has been officially opened by Andy Start, Chief Executive Officer of Defence Equipment & Support.

As Rheinmetall’s first divisional headquarters to be located outside of Germany, the VSI headquarters will focus on UK, North American and Asia-Pacific markets, providing global customers with more individualised support and promoting and enhancing wider international collaboration. It will continue to establish comprehensive, sovereign capability with commitment to the UK’s Land Industrial Strategy and to drive export from UK. Building on our investments in the UK, Rheinmetall House includes a Collaboration and Innovation Centre (CIC) – a unique capability to promote collaboration and innovation to achieve the battlefield of the future, enabling experimentation with technology across Rheinmetall, with customers, SME’s, academia and our current and future supply chain.

The CIC provides an area dedicated to developing concepts that can be realised in the Systems Integration Lab, pulling products and technology together to integrate into platforms. This approach to Digital Engineering will reduce development time and risk, enabling technology to reach the soldier faster.

Rheinmetall House adds to Rheinmetall’s locations across the UK, including London, Telford, Newcastle, Bovington and the Isle of Wight and further building UK capability, IP and enhancing our investment in UK prosperity. In addition to being the VSI HQ, Rheinmetall House brings together all of Rheinmetall’s expertise in weapons and munitions, technical publications, tactical and logistics vehicles as well as our joint venture RBSL.

During the launch event, guests from across the customer base and industry were invited to explore the Collaboration and Innovation Centre. On display was the BRIDGE future mission module, a digital twin for the Boxer module, demonstrating how SMEs, partners, and customers are exploring future mission requirements in both physical and digital engineering domains.

Attendees also had the chance to explore the Caracal Light Mobility Vehicle; enabled for experimentation with Electronic Architectures, a Mission Master; to experiment with remote piloting and combat pairing, and a Luna NG; with potential for linking to Land platforms to provide airborne ISTAR capability. All are enabled for development in the CIC to support the battlefield of the future.

Rheinmetall House offers an established base for our UK operations, to continue working with our customer, both current and future, and will provide opportunities for key stakeholders to engage and collaborate closely with the Vehicle Systems International division.

Chemring notes the announcement made by the European Commission regarding its allocation of funding in support of boosting defence production within Europe, and we welcome its public announcement of awards totaling €66.7m (£57m) made to our Norwegian subsidiary, Chemring Nobel.

These awards, which are part of the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (“ASAP”) programme, are a direct response to the European Council’s call in March 2023 to urgently deliver ammunition, and missiles if requested, to Ukraine and to help Member States refill their stocks by introducing targeted measures. This Regulation aims to strengthen the responsiveness and ability of the European Union’s defence industry to ensure the timely supply of ammunition and missiles in Europe, and includes measures to support production capacities and tackle identified bottlenecks throughout the industrial supply chain.

Further information can be found on the European Commission website:defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-defence-industry/asap-boosting-defence-production_en

Chemring is also pleased to report that it has received further grant funding of 428 million NOK (£32m) from the Government of Norway. This co-financing will boost capacity and production at Chemring Nobel and will significantly strengthen Norwegian production capacity for critical defense products.

Further information can be found on the Norwegian government website:www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/milliardstotte-til-norsk-forsvarsindustri/id3029866.

Grant agreements are expected to be signed over the coming months.

Both grants support Chemring’s decision to invest in doubling the capacity of this facility over the medium-term, and reinforces Chemring Nobel’s position as a key strategic supplier to NATO.