Krauss-Maffei
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Munich, Germany. The company produces various types of equipment as well as railroad locomotives, tanks, self-propelled artillery and other armoured vehicles. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann leads the European market for highly protected wheeled and tracked vehicles.[1]
Overview
Krauss-Maffei was formed in 1931 from a merger of the two Munich firms of Maffei (founded 1838) and Krauss & Co. (founded 1860). Both belonged to the leading German makers of locomotives of various types. Maffei also built other steam-operated vehicles and, later, manufactured vehicles with combustion engines, including locomotives, trolleybuses and buses until the 1950s.
In the 1960s, Krauss-Maffei built several examples of the ML 4000 C′C′ diesel-hydraulic locomotive for demonstration and testing on American railroads. Southern Pacific Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad participated in the tests, but both found the locomotives unsuitable for service in the rugged Rocky Mountains through which the two railroads ran. 1963 the company started production of the Leopard tank, 1973 production of Leopard 2. In the seventies they were involved in the development of the Transrapid magnetic levitation train. In 1999 the company fused with Mannesmann DEMAG.
Relationship with Wegmann
The production of armored vehicles was joined with the company Wegmann to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. Siemens had a 49% stake; Wegmann & Co. Unternehmens-Holding KG in Kassel bought this stake in December 2010 to become the sole shareholder of KMW.[2] The family holding is owned by about 26 silent partners. The partners are members of the families Bode, von Braunbehrens, von Maydell and Sethe and are all descendants of the firm's founders or the later owners of Wegmann & Co.[3][4] In 2011, a planned deal to sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia during the time of the Arab Spring caused widespread criticism. The NGO Zentrum für politische Schönheit (Center for political beauty) posted a reward of 25,000 Euro for bringing the owner family of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann to jail.[4] One of the owners, Burkhart von Braunbehrens, publicly opposed the deal and wrote an open letter to the German President Joachim Gauck. According to a leading interview question by a taz journalist, he was then asked to step down from his advisory roles with the company; he did not confirm this in the interview.[5]
Products
Examples include:
- Leopard 1 main battle tank
- Leopard 2 main battle tank
- PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer
- Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery
- Dingo 1 & 2 infantry mobility vehicle
- Panzerschnellbrücke 2
- FLW 100 and FLW 200 remote weapon stations
- Grizzly highly protected vehicle
- GTK Boxer armoured fighting vehicle
- MARS tracked multiple rocket launcher
- Artillery Gun Module (AGM), which has been further developed into the Donar self-propelled howitzer[6]
- Mungo ESK armoured transport vehicle
- Leguan armoured bridge layer
- Puma infantry fighting vehicle
- Fennek armoured reconnaissance vehicle
- F2 wheeled armoured vehicle
Images
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FLW 200 remote weapon station
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PzH 2000 of the German Army
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Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard
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GTK Boxer
References
- ↑ Homepage of Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann
- ↑ "Defence professionals". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ↑ "Der Panzer-Clan von Krauss-Maffei", Capital (in German), 22 Jun 2010.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Rüstungsfirma Kraus-Maffei Wegmann – Stur wie ein Panzer", Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German), 21 Jun 2012.
- ↑ "Rüstungseigentümer zum Panzerdeal – Der Protest hat noch Chancen", Taz (in German), 18 Jun 2012
- ↑ "Donar 155-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer". Retrieved 14 August 2011.
External links
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