Protection for infantrymen: Heckler & Koch develops drone defense

The largest German manufacturer of handguns, Heckler & Koch, joins the drone defense business. It was received for this, said company boss Jens Bodo Koch in Oberndorf. He did not give details. “Drones are an incredible threat to infantrymen, whereas there are only a few solutions so far.”

In the new defense system from Heckler & Koch, grenade launchers or garnet machines are installed on a vehicle tower and equipped with a sensor box that recognizes drones in the sky thanks to artificial intelligence and assesses their threat. The grenade is then programmed so that it explodes near the drone. “In the air, a metal cloud is created in which the drone flies and destroyed,” Koch explained the way the system works.

During the drone defense, Heckler & Koch works with the AI ​​specialist Autonomous Teaming from Munich. Control components for the grenades come from Rheinmetall, and the vehicle tower is from a Slovenian company. “We are the system provider who brings all of this together.” One was still in the construction phase of the project and have made the first attempts at shooting, at the latest at the end of the year the product should be finished and sold.

The new product is an example of the changed course of the manufacturer of assault rifles, machine rifles, grenade throwers and pistols. When the CEO Koch took over the executive chair at the Black Forest armaments in 2018, the company was a classic weapon manufacturer.

In the meantime, she sees herself as a “system provider” who shops for weapons components from suppliers and also sells them as a overall system – such as silencers and rifle optics. This is also why the company makes significantly more sales than before.

Order books more full than ever

The business figures for the past year were positive. In view of the Russian threat and the changed world situation, the orders of military from NATO countries go through the ceiling: If the order intake in 2023 was still 285.3 million euros, it rose by half to 426.2 million euros in 2024 – this value has never been so high in the company’s history.

Sales attracted 13.9 percent to EUR 343.4 million. The profit after taxes (EAT) rose by 9.6 percent to 31.5 million euros. Production was modernized with high investments. Thanks to the profitable shops, the once overwhelmingly high debt mountain is continuously reduced, after a repayment of five million euros in February, net debt is now 90 million euros. Heckler & Koch has around 1,250 employees, most of them at the main plant in Oberndorf. The company has a small assembly plant in the USA.

According to management, the economic perspectives are good. “Our company is strategically well positioned to continue growing in a demanding environment,” said company boss Koch, whose equality of name is randomly with the company’s founder Theodor Koch.