HENSOLDT Opens €300 Million Defence Campus in Oberkochen
German defence electronics group HENSOLDT opened a new defence campus in Oberkochen, Baden-Württemberg, on 24 July 2026, built with an investment of €300 million. German Federal Defence Minister Boris Pistorius attended the opening.
Sized for roughly 900 employees, the facility brings development, manufacturing and integration together on one site. Work there covers optronic systems, radar-based reconnaissance, electromagnetic warfare systems and AI-based sensor data fusion.
Berlin’s emphasis on capacity
Speaking at the opening, Pistorius said “HENSOLDT is doing exactly what we expect from our defence industry in these times, namely: increasing production capacities and scaling them up further.” The remark reflects Berlin’s expectation that higher defence budgets translate into tangible industrial output rather than order backlogs alone.
HENSOLDT chief executive Oliver Dörre said that in Oberkochen the company “combines decades of precision manufacturing with the speed of modern software”, adding: “This is precisely the combination that Germany and Europe need right now.”
What these systems actually do
Each product group at the site answers a different battlefield function. Optronics covers imaging systems working in the visible and infrared bands — thermal cameras, sighting systems and periscopes fall under this heading. Because they emit no signal of their own, unlike radar, they reduce the risk of being detected by the other side.
Electronic warfare concerns use of the electromagnetic spectrum: detecting and jamming hostile radar and communications signals, and protecting one’s own systems against the same. One of the clearest lessons of the fighting in Ukraine has been that electronic warfare against drones is now a mandatory layer alongside conventional air defence rather than a supplement to it.
Radar-based reconnaissance, for its part, provides long-range detection and tracking of air and ground targets. A defence electronics company bringing all three domains onto one site can be read as a choice that makes cross-integration easier during development rather than after it.
A software layer binding the sensors
Among the site’s central elements is the company’s MDOcore software suite, an architecture intended to connect sensors across land, air, sea, cyber and space domains under a single data framework. The aim is to present the operator with a consolidated situational picture rather than raw feeds on separate screens.
HENSOLDT describes the approach as a “neo-systems house” positioning — linking certified defence development with series production and faster software release cycles. In a field where hardware service life runs to decades while software update cycles have compressed to months, that distinction carries practical weight.
Bundeswehr and NATO demand
The facility is designed to meet rising demand from the Bundeswehr and NATO partners. Germany’s decision to raise defence spending, together with the alliance’s higher readiness requirements, has put procurement lead times for sensors and electronic warfare systems under scrutiny. Physically expanding production capacity is one direct answer to that pressure.
For HENSOLDT’s full product range across radar, electronic warfare and optronics, see our file on HENSOLDT’s defence domains; for the company’s financial scale, our analysis of its 2025 revenue and order book. Ownership structure and the company’s relationship with the German state are covered in Which Country is HENSOLDT From?
The competitive picture
Optronics, radar and electronic warfare are also among the strongest segments of the Turkish defence industry. Expanding physical production capacity in Europe points to sharper competition in export markets — particularly within NATO procurement programmes, where European manufacturers may convert added capacity into a delivery-time advantage.
The same picture also opens cooperation space in subsystem and component supply. Higher production volume in Europe means a wider supply chain around it.
The announcement did not specify annual output figures, which programmes the site will directly feed, or when it will reach full capacity.
Sources
- HENSOLDT official statement – opening of the Oberkochen campus, 24 July 2026. Used for investment value, headcount capacity, systems produced and the remarks by CEO Oliver Dörre. Link: https://www.hensoldt.net/
- German Federal Ministry of Defence – remarks by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius at the opening, 24 July 2026. Used for the ministry’s assessment of production capacity.
- Defence Industry Europe – “HENSOLDT opens €300 million German defence campus” – 25 July 2026. Used for the scope of the facility, the MDOcore software architecture and the NATO dimension. Link: https://defence-industry.eu/hensoldt-opens-e300m-german-defence-campus-to-expand-optronics-radar-and-ai-sensor-production-for-bundeswehr-and-nato/
