HENSOLDT helps to avert threats to armed forces and society and to protect our customers from them. We are a German champion in the defence industry with a leading market position in Europe and a global reach.
Our companies' success is based on the work of our highly skilled employees that are fascinated by high-end technology and driven by the desire to meet evolving customer needs. In line with the tradition of our predecessors, we translate technological innovations into smart electronic solutions, which support defence and security organisations in their mission to make the world a safer place.
Our employees are our most valuable asset and, therefore, our top priority.
HENSOLDT is a pioneer of technology and innovation for defence and security electronics. Based in Taufkirchen near Munich, our company is a German Champion with strategic leadership positions in the field of sensor solutions for defence and security applications. As a technology leader, HENSOLDT also continuously expands its Cyber portfolio and develops new products to combat a wide range of threats based on innovative approaches to data management, robotics and cybersecurity.
With more than 6,500 employees, HENSOLDT achieved a turnover of 1.7 billion euros in 2022.
At the heart of our company culture are the values we share, giving the success of our company a common, solid basis. These values – laid out already in our predecessor companies and developed further - are fundamental to all our doing and have a profound impact on all other areas of our business, like a house that cannot rest safely without reliable foundations.
In this sense, the basis of everything is the value of Collaboration going together with team spirit and respect, openness, transparency and trust, i.e. overcoming organisational lines and taking on challenges as one team. Based on this foundation HENSOLDT rests on three pillars: Excellence, Ownership and Innovation. Bearing the roof of the entire building is Entrepreneurship.
One word summarizes what we all are committed to: To act on behalf of our company, take decisions, continuously aspire for excellence and accept being held responsible – in the best interest of our customers!
Ownership means we keep our world safe, we take responsibility for our decisions and actions and we are reliable towards our colleagues and our customers.
Excellence is literally the essence of our success, but only if it is paired with efficiency, agility and simplicity. Excellence is no value in itself but only insofar as it serves customer value.
Innovation is a permanent process, not so much a status, requiring curiosity, creativity and passion as well as courage to think outside of the box and even to risk failure.
HENSOLDT is a leading supplier for platform independent offerings deployed across the domains air, sea, land and security for armed and security forces worldwide. As a German champion and the largest European pure-play defence and security electronics house, we contribute significantly to the protection of soldiers and the operational capability of the German Bundeswehr and the wider NATO.
HENSOLDT’s portfolio includes various sensor technologies, which, when combined, allow detection capabilities to be improved substantially. Our main areas of activity include the protection of borders and critical infrastructures, air defence, mission management and platform self-protection, force protection, signal intelligence and data links, as well as night vision devices, laser rangefinders and optronic targeting equipment. In addition, our portfolio also comprises of mission avionics such as avionics computers, mission planning systems and autopilots.
With our wide product range, we cover all types of applications in air, sea, land and security missions and enable our customers to maintain superiority when it comes to monitoring the electromagnetic spectrum. Our solutions are deployed on various platforms, including helicopters, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, ships and submarines, armoured vehicles as well as satellites.
Thomas Müller
CEO of HENSOLDT
Celia Pelaz
Chief Strategy Officer
Christian Ladurner
Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Lars Immisch
Chief HR Officer
Before taking over the management of HENSOLDT, Thomas Müller was the CEO of Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security GmbH after having previously managed the Electronics unit in the Airbus Defence and Space Division.
From January 2013 until the time when he assumed this position, he had been the Head of Astrium Satellites Products, following his time as the CFO and an Executive Committee member at Astrium. Prior to these positions, he had served as the CFO of EADS Systems & Defence Electronics. Before this, he had held various management functions at DASA Defence and Civil Systems, DASA Missiles and Air Defence Systems and Deutsche Aerospace AG.
Thomas Müller (born in Munich in 1958) began his career in 1978 in the German Armed Forces, which he left as a captain in 1991. He graduated from the University of the German Armed Forces with a degree in Economics and Business Administration.
Celia Pelaz was appointed to HENSOLDT´s Management Board in July 2021. Already in 2017, she took over the position as Head of Spectrum Dominance and Airborne Solutions . Prior, she was the Head of Strategic Business Development at HENSOLDT following her position as Head of Transformation and Corporate Functions at Airbus Defence and Space Electronics, which she was appointed to in July 2014. Before this, she worked as Head of Portfolio Bid Management for Mission Systems (UAVs and mission critical avionics).
During her 14 years of service at Airbus, Pelaz also lived in Brazil where she worked as Programme Manager for the "PROAMATEC" security programme, making a major contribution to setting up the company in Brazil. Prior to her assignment abroad, she worked in several positions as project, bid and sales manager in the field of defence electronics.
Celia Pelaz (born in Durango/Spain in 1978) holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from the University College of Bilbao Chamber of Commerce.
Christian Ladurner has been a member of the Management Board of HENSOLDT AG since July 2022, where he serves as CFO.
Mr. Ladurner has held various commercial positions at HENSOLDT since 2015, most recently as Head of Group Controlling & Investor Relations and Head of the Taufkirchen site. From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Ladurner worked in various positions at Airbus Defence and Space, including supply chain and project controlling. Prior to that, Mr. Ladurner worked at Volkswagen AG, among others.
Christian Ladurner (born in Ingolstadt in 1977) holds a degree in business administration from the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Henley Business School.
Dr. Lars Immisch is a member of the Management Board of HENSOLDT AG and has been the company´s CHRO since October 2022. Dr. Immisch has been Executive Vice-President Human Resources at Airbus Defence &Space GmbH since January 2014.
Previously, he held various leading positions at Airbus and its predecessor companies. After studying law at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and working as a research assistant at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, he began his professional career in 1999 at Airbus (DASA/EADS) as Manager Human Resources.
Dr. Immisch is a fully qualified lawyer and holds a doctorate in law from the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena.
Peter Schlote
Head of Radar and Naval Solutions
Christoph Ruffner
Head of Spectrum Dominance and Airborne Solutions
Tanya Altmann
Head of Optronics and Land Solutions
Jérôme Giraud
Head of Services and Aerospace Solutions
Peter Schlote took over the Radar and Naval Solutions Division at HENSOLDT in 2022. Prior, he was the Chief Operating Officer at HENSOLDT. Between 2009 and 2015, Peter Schlote was the CEO of Tesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co. KG, a global market leader for satellite payload equipment.
Previously he had managed the Avionics product line at EADS Defence and Security and served as a member of the Board of Directors at EuroMIDS in Paris. Schlote was part of the Merger Integration Team in the EADS Headquarters. He joined the Airbus Group in 1991 as a development manager at Siemens Defence Electronics.
Peter Schlote (born in Neunkirchen/Saar in 1967) graduated from the University of Applied Sciences of Saarbrücken as an electrical engineer. Furthermore, he holds a Master's degree from the National Defense University in Washington DC and a degree from the Defense Acquisition University of the United States.
Christoph Ruffner has been appointed as Head of the Spectrum Dominance & Airborne Solutions Division and member of the Executive Committee of HENSOLDT AG on September 1, 2022.
In his previous position as Head of Engineering and Supply Chain Management for the division, he has already led all engineering activities for the division and established the overall supply chain management activities for the division. In his role as Head of Strategic Transformation, he previously led all transformation activities following the acquisition of HENSOLDT by the investor KKR, in addition to the International Setup of HENSOLDT and Post Merger Integration.
Prior to that, he held various management positions in Airbus Group, which included sales, development, transformation, and staff activities as well as managing director of a subsidiary of Airbus.
Christoph Ruffner is a graduated Software Engineer from University of Stuttgart (Dpl.-Inf.) and started his career in DaimlerChrysler as member of the management trainee group.
Tanya Altmann has been the Head of Optronics and Land Solutions Division and the Managing Director of HENSOLDT Optronics GmbH since April 2023.
Previously, she was CEO of Skoda Transportation Deutschland GmbH. As President for the global bus division, she was largely responsible for the introduction of buses with alternative, but primarily hydrogen and electric drives. At the Turkish sister company TEMSA (OEM in the bus and miditruck sector), Altmann was a board member. Before joining Skoda, she was CEO for the Central, East European, Russian + CIS Region (CEER) at GE Power Conversion in Berlin. The company offers product and system solutions in almost all industrial sectors, such as the steel, mining, automotive and power industries.
In the role of senior project manager, Altmann was employed by train manufacturer Alstom. One of her greatest successes there was the acquisition and project management of an electric multiple unit order, including service, worth approx. 275 million euros on behalf of the Central Saxony Transport Association (Zweckverband Mittelsachsen).
Altmann's first job was with Airbus Military during the development of the A400M. In addition to project management for the "wing covers" area, Altmann was also finance controller and weight manager.
Tanya Altmann (born 1977 in Aalen) graduated in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Braunschweig (Carolo-Wilhelmina).
Jérôme Giraud is a French Engineer with a Master from Essec business School. He had various management functions at Aerospatiale/ EADS/ Airbus and at SFR, a leading french mobile Operator. After managing a digital marketing agency, he joined Nexeya in 2014 to became General Manager of the french electronic group specialized in Defense and Aerospace activities.
Following the takeover by HENSOLDT, he took the Presidence/ CEO position of HENSOLDT activities in France. In 2022 he took over the position as Head of the newly founded Services and Aeropsace Solutions divison.
Alexander Dahm
Chief Supply Chain Officer
Stefan Hess
Head of Governmental Business Development and Political Affairs
Russell Gould
Head of International Business Development
Dr. Katja Stadelmann
General Counsel
Alexander Dahm is a member of the executive committee and took over the Role of Chief Supply Chain Officer in 2022. Prior he was leading the HENSOLDT Improvement and Transformation Program.
Between 1991 and 2019 Alexander Dahm hold various leading positions in Airbus and its predecessor companies in Program, Engineering, Production Management for Ariane 5 as well as Aircrafts and Components.
Alexander Dahm (born in Hamburg in 1965) graduated as Dipl.-Ing. of Space and Aviation Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig.
Stefan Hess, born in 1968, studied Political Science and Economics at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. He previously completed training as an army officer, gained experience in out-of-area operations and, after serving in the troops, was most recently a full-time youth officer. He went to Berlin and worked in various functions for industry and trade associations in the field of industrial policy, most recently as Head of department for Defense and Space at the BDLI.
In 2016, Stefan Hess changed to HENSOLDT and built up the Public Affairs department in Berlin, Brussels and Paris. In January 2021, he took over the area of Business Development and Political Affairs Germany & European Homecountries.
Stefan Hess is a member of the Presidium of the German Air Force Association and the Defense Business Unit of the European industry association ASD.
From 2007 until September 2017, Russell Gould was CEO of Kelvin Hughes Ltd, having led the Company through its management buyout from Smiths Group PLC. Prior to this, Gould worked for BAE systems in Italy and Oman, heading up the Project Engineering Management function. He is also Chairman of the UK maritime Trade Association, SMI, and sits on the Government / Industry Trade body, Maritime UK
Russell Gould (Born in Watford, UK in 1963) holds a First Class BSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bath University, is a Chartered Engineer, and is a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET)
Dr. Katja Stadelmann has joined HENSOLDT with effect of 1st September 2023, taking over the position as General Counsel of HENSOLDT Group.
Katja has long term experience in all matters of inhouse legal departments. She has worked in different areas of well-known company Siemens and various Siemens subsidiaries and has acquired significant expertise in diverse fields of law, such as project business, M&A and antitrust. She has assumed various leadership roles on regional and global level.
Since 2018 she has also been serving as the Group Data Protection Officer/ Head of Data Privacy of Siemens Healthineers AG building up the global Data Privacy Team.
We, the HENSOLDT Group, offer our customers mission critical sensor systems for protection, for surveillance and for situational awareness.
As innovation is intrinsic to our DNA we continously develop innovative, integrated and customer-specific solutions in the segments Radar, IFF & COMMS, Spectrum Dominance and Airborne Solutions, Optronics and Customer Services. We consistently drive innovations forward and invest significantly in research and development. This is complemented by our in-house innovation-hub and start-up incubator HENSOLDT Ventures.
We strive to become Europe’s leading, platform-independent provider of defence and security sensor solutions with global reach.
Key company figures 2022
Global Footprint
HENSOLDT has German roots, a large presence in Europe, and a global footprint. We have sales offices in 19 key accessible defence markets globally. Our major production facilities in Germany are in Ulm, Oberkochen, and Pforzheim. We have a production site in Massy, France and Enfield, United Kingdom, as well as another two in Irene and Pretoria, South Africa.
HENSOLDT was originally built from various former Airbus activities in the areas of defence and security electronics. Those activities are all linked to sensor technologies, mutually augmenting their respective strengths and reaping synergies from operation under one roof, as a provider of platform independent sensor systems.
Our company’s know-how is based on the pioneering spirit of our renowned predecessor companies such as AEG, Aerospatiale-Matra, Carl Zeiss, Cassidian, Daimler, Dornier, EADS, Siemens, and Telefunken, as well as Airbus, driving technology to better detect threats to our societies and to help protect our fellow citizens.
In addition, HENSOLDT acquired the German company Euroavionics and British radar specialist Kelvin Hughes as well as the start-up PentaTec. Moreover, HENSOLDT acquired the French-based company Nexeya and IE Asia-Pacific. With Tellumat, HENSOLDT's most recent acquisition, we achieve a combination of both strategic goals, focusing on radar technology capabilities specifically in South Africa.
In our company, we bring together the innovative spirit of our predeccessor companies such as AEG, Aerospatiale-Matra, Carl Zeiss, Cassidian, Daimler, Dornier, EADS, Siemens, and Telefunken, as well as Airbus. In our company history of more than 150 years, many inventions took place. We show just an extract of the most prominent ones.
The inventions of the past are the basis of our future.
Following the exchange of letters between Ernst Abbe and Lieutenant Carl Freiherr Beaulieu-Marconnay, the development of a riflescope for the Prussian army begins.
This marks the first step in over 125 years of experience in the defence and security industry.
A prism binocular, a scissors telescope and an optical rangefinder are invented and manufactured.
Moritz Hensoldt develops the world‘s first binoculars with roof prisms.
The first periscope for the German submarine “Forelle” is developed and manufactured. It can be moved up and down by the submarine crew and is ground breaking for the German submarine forces.
Christian Hülsmeyer presents to the public the first radar-based system, the "Telemobiloskop" which can detect objects via the Doppler effect.
The first handheld stereoscopic is developed.
With the invention of antireflection coating by Alexander Smakula, the light transmission in binoculars and riflescopes can be increased to 80 per cent.
Telefunken develops the first air defence radar.
We become the leading pioneer in thermal imagers with long-range heat sensors and tracking devices (WPG DONAU).
Kelvin Hughes develops the first marine radar type 1.
The TELEGON 1, an innovative direction finder, is developed.
The ASR-3, a first generation ATC radar by AEG Telefunken, is demonstrated to the public at a fair in Berlin.
With our ZEISS Optronics predecessor company, we produce the PERI-R 12, the world’s first stabilized panoramic periscope, for the German main battle tank Leopard 1. It includes the stereoscopic rangefinder EMES 12.
The "Tiefflieger-Melde-Radar" MPDR is one of the first mobile puls-doppler radars for air surveillance.
We equip the electronic attack vehicle EK33 Hummel of the German Bundeswehr with an innovative jammer.
Serial production of the WBG-X thermal imager based on the common module principle for armoured vehicles (Leopard 1, Leopard 2, Marder, Luchs) by ZEISS Optronics begins. In addition, the development of an optronic submarine periscope starts.
We develop the first generation of the missile warning system MILDS which in newer generations is still in use with armed forces.
We start development of the TRS-3D/16 naval radar, which is still in use with nations today.
We equip the F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft with an airborne radar.
We start development of Hellas, the first obstacle warning system for Helicopters.
Start of the border surveillance business with sensor technology. Since then, more than 900 Systems ranging from a number of vehicle platforms to boats, mast systems, buoys, containers, camp protection and tripods, have been delivered.
The first generation of mission management suits for helicopters is developed by EUROAVIONICS.
Construction of the digital IR-camera OPHELIOS starts. Other important projects like the RecceLite, a reconnaissance pod for tactical aircraft and the development of eye-safe laser rangefinders with a very long range are starting in the 1990 following years.
RecceLite, a reconnaissance pod for tactical aircraft, is being developed.
Development of the submarine periscope SERO 400 with laser rangefinder and optronic mast system OMS 100 start, including a high resolution thermal imager and an HDTV-camera.
Meteorological satellite METEOSAT uses optics from Oberkochen for earth observation.
Serial production of ATTICA, the third-generation thermal imager, starts. The G-Class is introduced as a system solution with a Multi sensor platform.
We realize the first optical data link (5.5 GBit/s) in space between two LEO satellites.
Development and production of a modular targeting system for the enhanced German Future Soldier project “Infanterist der Zukunft – Erweitertes System”.
First European Laser Altimeter (BELA) qualified for space.
HENSOLDT introduces Xpeller, its first counter drone system, which reliably detects even extremely small UAVs at a distance of several kilometres.
HENSOLDT presented its passive radar system TwInvis to the public for the first time in live operation during that year’s International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin.
HENSOLDT demonstrates the initial fitting and operating activities of its newly developed electro-optical vision system SETAS (See-through Armour System) with the British Army’s Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) in Bovington.
HENSOLDT and Diehl developed the demonstrator of a sensor system for avoiding collisions between aircraft. Such a sensor system consisting of a radar and a camera can reliably detect objects in the flight path of UAVs. The recognition of such situations is one of the essential requirements for deploying unmanned aerial vehicles in controlled airspace.