BAe buys into FRG's Atlas Elektronik

Sea Power, Feb 1997

British Aerospace (BAe) has bought a 49 percent stake in Germany's STN Atlas Elektronik, whose parent company, shipbuilding giant Bremer Vulkan Verbund, filed for bankruptcy last year. Since then, the German government has been trying to find a buyer for the system integration, sonar, and torpedo manufacturing subsidiary.

The government considered it imperative that STN Atlas Elektronik, as a strategic asset, did not pass into nonGerman ownership. Under terms of the sale, 51 percent of the company was bought by a consortium of Rheinmetall and Badenwerke, with the remainder going to BAe.

The outcome represents another big step along the road towards an integrated European defense industry. STN Atlas Elektronik has been very successful in the international marketing of its submarine, surface ship, and mine countermeasures sonars, and hopes, in collaboration with French and Italian interests, to offer its DM2A4 heavyweight torpedo to European navies.