DUIHK CEO Breakfast briefing, February 21. 2024

This CEO Business Breakfast, hosted by the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DUIHK) in partnership with the Budapest Business Journal and Budapest Security Dialogue, turns the spotlight on the defense industry in Hungary.

The DUIHK assembled a business panel uniquely positioned to take us on a deep dive into the sector’s realities: Paul Walf, CEO of Rheinmetall Hungary; Joachim Hutt, CEO of Dynamit Nobel Defense Hungary; and Peter Faragó, CTO of N7 Holding.

As usual, the discussion was moderated by Robin Marshall, BBJ editor-in-chief, with co-moderator Wolf Illner, managing director of BSD and a former Defense Attaché at the German Embassy in Budapest from 2017 to 2020.

Rheinmetall Hungary has three companies here in Hungary. It produces the KF41 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles at Zalaegerszeg, where it and N7 will also be involved in developing the next-generation Panther KF51 main battle tank. Another two plants in Várpalota produce explosives and manufacture ammunition. The third company, in Budapest, is an IT firm working on digitalization for the Rheinmetall Group from Hungary.

Dynamit Nobel Defense Hungary is in the final planning stages for setting up a production facility for anti-tank weapons. In July 2021, then Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics spoke about creating six business clusters as the most critical element of Hungary’s defense industry strategy.

A military vehicle cluster in the west of Hungary would grow up around the Rheinmetall plant in Zalaegerszeg, the majority state-owned automotive industry company Rába in Győr (120 km west), and BM Heros, based in Kaposvár, he said.

An air defense cluster would center around Gyula, where Airbus has its helicopter parts factory.
An ammunition and grenade cluster will be established around Rheinmetall’s factories in Várpalota, a weapons cluster in Kiskunfélegyháza, a communications and cyber cluster in Budapest, and a sensors cluster in the north of the country.

This CEO Business Breakfast provides a candid and insightful discussion about the defense industry landscape in Hungary, bringing German manufacturers and potential Hungarian suppliers closer together and providing connections for DUIHK members with defense industry players.