Rafael expanding activities in the field of military digitization in Germany

The expansion is being carried out through a new digital division established by Rafael's subsidiary Dynamit Nobel Defense

Rafael expanding activities in the field of military digitization in Germany

Photo: Rafael

In a recent article published on the German website esut.de, journalist Lars Hoffman reviewed the activities of the Israeli company Rafael in the field of military digitization in Germany. The journalist stated that the company is expanding those activities in Germany through its subsidiary Dynamit Nobel Defense (DND).

The tenders expected in the coming years as part of the digitization of land-based operations, and the tendency of the German procurement authorities to allow competition by both domestic and foreign companies, are seen as creating opportunities for many manufacturers. The US company Motorola recently won a tender for deployable cellular networks, while the Danish company Systematic is providing the Battle Management System (BMS) for the Army.

Against this background, at the end of 2020, Rafael founded the DND Digital division that currently has 13 employees, primarily programmers and software engineers, in Berlin and Leipzig. The aim is to increase the number to 24 by the end of the year and then to 40 in 2022. DND Digital, with its hardware and software, wants to compete for lucrative German Army digitization projects. According to Simon Brünjes, Head of the DND Digital department, the company is already competing in the recently-started tender process for new soldier radios, as well as the tender for command radios, also referred to as Combat Net Radio, expected in the coming months. DND wants to offer the software defined radios (SDR) of the BNET series developed by parent company Rafael and adapted to the needs of the German Army. On the software side, DND Digital offers, among other things, the "Fire Weaver" fire control network that is already used by the IDF.

Brünjes said that the aim of DND Digital is to "Germanize" the products originally developed in Israel for local orders. The company's digital division will, among other things, further develop software applications in Germany and adapt them to the requirements of the German market so that there are no so-called black boxes for the German Army. According to the head of the department, target-critical data will not run through Israeli algorithms, as this is incompatible with Germany's digital sovereignty. Brunjes estimated that in the case of radio technology, production should be completely independent of Israel after 2024, the article said. 

In general, DND executive Brünjes estimated that Israel has a development lead of "six to seven years" over Germany when it comes to IT products for defense. The German Army could also benefit from this. Brünjes said he wants to demonstrate the company's capabilities to the Armed Forces and other users as soon as the basic structure of DND Digital is set up. In late summer, for the first time, small "use cases" will be demonstrated for an audience of experts, with demonstrations for the Army Command to follow in the coming year, according to the article.