A few days ago, the Ministry of Defense and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber hosted a Business Day at the Maria Theresa Barracks in Vienna. The event was attended by high-ranking speakers from the Austrian Armed Forces as well as numerous domestic and international company representatives and companies. “Since the Caucasian war in 2008 A lot has changed in society and politics, particularly in the past year or two. The topic of security has increasingly come into focus and we have been thinking about the future design of the armed forces. We have pushed ahead with plans for all domains – land, air and space – and we will now move forward in all of these domains.” Major General Harald Vodosek, Chief of Armaments of the Austrian Armed Forces, left no doubt about the ambitious growth plans of the red-white-red armed forces in his speech at the Business Day of the Austrian Armed Forces and the Chamber of Commerce. He then became more specific, going into the procurement details.
“Domestic technology companies in the security sector contribute to the security of the country and the competitiveness of the location.”
Mariana Kühnel, Generalsekretär-Stellvertreterin der WKÖIn the next presentation, Major General Bruno Hofbauer gave an insight into the work of his planning department. “Over the past few years, we have worked out six possible development paths for the armed forces.” Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner then decided on a profile, which is now being implemented with the
“2032 development plan” filled with life. “We have an investment budget of around 16.7 billion euros until 2032. If we compare this to a marathon, then we are currently at the start of it, we have only just crossed the starting line. We are still moving slowly, but we will pick up speed. We will turn the armed forces around 180 degrees in the coming years,” concluded the army’s head of planning. https://militaeraktuell.at/wir-haben-viele-plaene-in-der-schublade/ The first panel of the day followed: Guard commander and military expert Colonel Markus Reisner, Brigadier Erich Weissenböck (Head of Structural Planning), Ministerial Councillor Thomas Bischinger (representative of Science, Research and Development) and Brigadier Peter Pertl (Head of Vehicle, Equipment and Personal Equipment in the Procurement Department) discussed the military perspectives of land mobility. In the second panel – moderated by Sonja Linskeseder, Deputy Managing Director of ARGE Sicherheit & Wirtschaft – analyst Franz-Stefan Gady from the Institute for International Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, Heinz Milchrahm (Head of Pre-Development & Innovation at Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles), Michael Mock (International Business & Services Central Europe at Pandur and Ulan manufacturer General Dynamics European Land Systems-Steyr) and Stefan Szücs (Director Business Development & Sales at AVL List) gave an outlook on the land mobility of the future. Finally, Reinhard Marak, Managing Director of ARGE Sicherheit & Wirtschaft in the WKÖ, and Colonel Klaus Jenschik from the Procurement Department at the BMLV summarized the most important content of the day. This was followed by an intensive exchange between the military and industry. Among others, Saab (Per Alriksson & Christian Trottmann), Ulbrichts (Thomas Poandl), Steyr Arms (Sales Manager Erwin Derntl & owner Gerhard Unterganschnigg), Empl (Joe Empl), Viewpointsystem (Paul Cerny), Tatra (Adam Dorazil and Anton Bucek), Satellite Telecom (Christopher Leder), Drone Passion (Patrick Esser), Rheinmetall MAN, STI Steyr, Thales, …
