Stefan Thumann is the founder, Managing Director and Chief Designer of Donaustahl GmbH. With its mouse platform, the Lower Bavarian defense start-up is regarded as Germany’s leading company in the field of loitering ammunition and a major supporter of the Ukrainian armed forces in their defensive campaign against Russia (-> current news from the Ukraine war).
In just twelve months, Donaustahl has established itself as a highly specialized developer of active agents for combat UAVs and FPV combat electronics. As a sought-after expert, Thumann has already spoken at an event organized by the UXS Alliance (-> Quantum Systems & ARX Robotics found UXS Alliance) in Berlin in November. Corporations such as the Hensoldt Group also have the young company on their radar, as was recently announced on the short message service X (formerly Twitter). And this week, the news magazine Spiegel exclusively reported that Donaustahl is the first company in the world to launch combat-optimized “combat stacks” (core avionics for UAVs) for FPV.
Game on.@Hensoldt SPEXER 2000 vs. @DonaustahlGmbH ALMP “MAUS”
A battle were both sides might come out victorious! Because a huge gain of information for both companies will be the result in any case.
pic.twitter.com/HiUqDt3Qat– Donaustahl GmbH (@DonaustahlGmbH) November 9, 2024
Mr. Thumann, your company is currently the talk of the town. When did you found Donaustahl and how has the company developed since then?
Donaustahl started operations in 2020 and was originally a manufacturer of handgun butt stocks. From the beginning of 2023, however, we put out more and more feelers and expanded our product portfolio. Initially, we produced protected ampoule carriers for combat medics and field deployment kits for the Starlink sat cables for the Ukrainian armed forces in addition to our impact sockets. We established good contacts here and earned the trust of the Ukrainians. We were soon producing structural parts for fixed-wing UAVs due to the steadily increasing demand. But it was the acute need for FPV quadcopters that prompted me to develop my own system. We get our expertise directly from the field thanks to the close cooperation between Donaustahl employees on site and the Ukrainian armed forces. We are not afraid to go all the way. So you could say that Donaustahl has developed well.
What does the product range look like now?
We can cover the entire spectrum of FPV close-range warfare. With the Adaptive Loitering Munition Platform Mouse, we have developed a universal weapon of war that can be modularly adapted to all customer requirements. Added to this is the ability to integrate a wide range of agents. We have also developed our own warheads and grenades specifically for UAV use.
What does the foreseeable future hold for Donaustahl?
Our “Combat Electronics” division is new. Here we develop hardware specifically for use in combat drones. The future will bring many more drone projects. We want to tackle both Russian glide bombs and the civilian sector.
FPV is a topic of drastic contrasts. If you order a battalion of tanks, it takes five years for delivery – in the best-case scenario. The FPV drones that are supposed to destroy these tanks may already be in the inventory within a few days. However, the same people who consider it normal to shoot a guided missile tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of euros one way are worried that the drone costing a few hundred euros won’t come back. Are we still thinking about drones and FPV in the wrong way?
I am ambivalent about this. On the one hand, for example, I see the Bundeswehr many very capable people who take the issue very seriously and have recognized the capability gap. On the other hand, there are just as many people who can’t even spell the word drone correctly. The civilian population is largely indifferent to the issue. When they think of drones, they still think of the US Predator or some science fiction stuff. They will only wake up when Russian, Iranian or, above all, Chinese UAVs start flying around our ears.
The defense industry is one of the winners of the turnaround. Order books are full and share prices are rising. It is an open secret that Donaustahl is also working on a kind of participation model. When can interested parties get in touch with you?
The big problem here is the cost and time factor. Converting it into an AG, having it valued and going public would cost hundreds of thousands of euros and take up to a year. Money and time that we, as a defense company that is cut off from the money market, don’t have and that I would rather invest in developing my products and recruiting employees. So the stock market is out of the question in the medium term. There are alternatives to an IPO. However, these also have considerable disadvantages. We are still looking for a solution. But to put it simply: it costs too much money to raise money in this way.
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