Hensoldt was created in 2017 from Airbus’ Defence Electronics business. Airbus retained a stake until September 2018, after which it was a fully independent company. Italian arms giant Leonardo acquired a 25.1% stake in Hensoldt early in 2022. In 2020, Hensoldt was the 78th largest arms company in the world, according to SIPRI, with arms sales of $1,270 million, 92% of its total sales.
The company is headquartered in Munich and has manufacturing sites in Germany, France, the UK, and South Africa.
It states that its main business areas 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.” Their products cover all the domains of air, sea, land, space, cyber, and “security”.
