Effective October 1, 2014, Cassidian Optronics is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space, and will operate as Airbus DS Optronics GmbH. This concludes the integration process started in October 2012. Since then, Airbus Defence and Space has held a 75.1 per cent share of the former Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH subsidiary of Carl Zeiss AG with headquarters in Oberkochen. Both companies have agreed not to disclose the price of the final 24.9 per cent share.

The Management led by CEO Ralf Klaedtke will remain unchanged. Also, the alteration to the company’s name and the complete change of ownership will not entail any changes for the suppliers, customers and employees of the company. With approximately 800 employees at its German sites in Oberkochen and Wetzlar as well as in Irene (South Africa), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Seoul (South Korea) and Sidi bel Abbès (Algeria), Airbus DS Optronics develops, designs and produces optronic, optical and precision-engineered products for military, civil and security applications.

These are used globally by armed forces and security personnel for monitoring, identification and classification purposes, as well as for precise measurement, evaluation and targeting. The optronic products are used for land, air, sea and space missions on a variety of platforms. These include submarines and armoured vehicles as well as aircraft, satellites and UAVs.