Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace

Infobox Company
company_name = Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = 1814
location = Kongsberg, Norway
key_people = Tom Gerhardsen (President)
area_served = Global
industry = Military
products =
revenue = profit NOK 2,997 million (2006)
operating_income =profit NOK 182 million (2006)
net_income =
num_employees = profit1,547 (2006)
parent = Kongsberg Gruppen
subsid =
homepage = http://www.kongsberg.com
footnotes =

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA), one of two operating companies of Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG) of Norway, is a supplier of defence and space related systems and products, mainly anti-ship missiles, military communications, and command and weapons control systems for naval vessels and air-defence applications. Today, the company is probably best known abroad for its development/industrialisation and production of the first passive IR homing anti-ship missile of the western world, the Penguin, starting delivery in the early 1970s (when KDA was part of KOG's predecessor "Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk"). The latest product which attracts huge interest is the PROTECTOR M151 Remote Weapon Station which is fielded by the US Army (main armament of the Stryker ICV Vehicle), the Canadian Army and the Australian Army. As of 2005, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace had 1,421 employees.

Space related activities are conducted within KDA itself in addition to its subsidiaries, [http://www.spacetec.no/ Kongsberg Spacetec] (wholly owned) and "Kongsberg Satellite Services" (50% owned by KDA, 50% by the Norwegian Space Centre), both located in Tromsø. Notable space related products from KDA are the Booster Attachment and Release Mechanisms for ESA's Ariane 5. In the early 1990s KDA was involved with NASA's JPL and Germany's DASA in software development of the test/checkout system, as well as spacecraft hardware production, for the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens space probe. KDA has also delivered the Solar Array Drive Mechanism for ESA's Rosetta space probe.

Products

* PROTECTOR M151 Remote Weapon Station
* Penguin
* Naval Strike Missile
* NASAMS

See also

*Aviation in Norway

External links

* [http://www.kongsberg.com/eng/kda/ Company website]
* [http://www.spacetec.no/ Kongsberg Spacetec website]
* [http://www.kongsberg.com/eng/kog/newsroom/newsarchive/Default.asp?Id=31384 "KDA part of historic space project"] – On KDA's involvement in the Cassini-Huygens mission (from KOG's news archive, 17 January 2005)