KNDS France

KNDS France (formerly known as Nexter, GIAT Industries or Groupement des Industries de l'Armée de Terre, Army Industries Group) is a French government-owned weapons manufacturer, based in Versailles. The company was wholly government-owned as GIAT from 1991 to 2006 and as Nexter from 2006 to 2015, when it merged with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) to form KNDS: a single company jointly owned, via holding companies, by the French state and the private owners of KMW. In 2024, Nexter was renamed KNDS France.

Group organization

KNDS France and its subsidiaries are divided into several smaller entities, with the main one being KNDS France. The sub-companies are:

KNDS Ammo France
KNDS Ammo Italy S.P.A
KNDS Belgium
KNDS France Mechanics
KNDS France Robotics
KNDS France Training
KNDS OptSys
KNDS CBRN

History

Rebranding as Nexter (2006)

On 21 September 2006, then-CEO Luc Vigneron announced that GIAT would soon complete a corporate restructuring that had been planned since 2003. The company's legacy product lines would be grouped under a holding company that would retain the GIAT name, while those slated for future development and expansion would be separated into four subsidiaries, all branded with the name "Nexter". The reorganization took effect on 1 December.[6]

Nexter has a joint venture CTA International with BAE Systems to develop and manufacture case telescoped weapon systems and ammunition of 40 mm calibre.

Nexter continues to produce several former GIAT small arms, cannon, and anti-armour weapons. One such weapon is the Wasp 58, a low cost, one man antiarmour/assault weapon system.

In May 2014 Nexter bought two artillery shell manufacturers: Mecar in Petit-Roeulx-les-Nivelles Belgium, and Simmel Difesa in Colleferro Italy.[7]

Merger with KMW (2015)

In 2015, Nexter and Krauss-Maffei merged under a single structure. The new KMW+Nexter Defense Systems (KNDS) will be the European leader of terrestrial defense with more than 6,000 employees. The supervisory board appointed the new CEO of Nexter Systems, Stéphane Mayer, and the chairman of the executive board of KMW, Frank Haun, as CEOs of the holding company.[8]

On 24 October 2023, Nexter's Mecar subsidiary announced that it had found an investment of €15 million for a 155mm artillery shell production facility.[9] A guarantee by the Belgian Defense Ministry of €10 million was needed to initiate construction. In May 2024 the price of the munitions was between €7,000 and €10,000.[10] The facility would be able to produce roughly 100 shells per day,[10] which was then roughly a third of the number of heavy artillery shells produced at KNDS overall.[11] At the time, Mecar did not have permission to handle explosives, so the shells needed to be sent away for final assembly.

former name	GIAT Industries (1973 - 2006) Nexter (2006-2024)
type	Société Anonyme
industry	Defence
predecessor	Nexter, GIAT Industries
founded	1973
founder	French government
hq location city	Versailles n. Paris
hq location country	France
products	artillery, ammunition, military vehicles, tanks, electronics, robots, CBRN, optronics
num employees	3,700
parent	since 2015 KNDS
website	knds.fr/en
revenue	€962 million (2018)
net income	€118 million (2018)

Group organization

History

Rebranding as Nexter (2006)

Merger with KMW (2015)

Rebranding as KNDS France (2024)

Products

External links

References