Rheinmetall

Joining us today for an exclusive interview is Marc Honikel, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer at Rheinmetall Air Defence. Marc discusses the latest emerging trends in the defence sector and shares his expert insights into the innovation and technologies key to the industry’s continued success.

To begin, Marc highlights the latest developments in air defence technology.

“As the whole defence industry, air defence is enjoying a real renaissance at the moment,” says Marc. “In the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, we’ve seen large numbers of drones causing threats to society, critical infrastructure and defence formations.

“Actually, this perceived new type of threat is not that new at all. Unmanned aerial vehicles have been around for a while, but in the last ten years the proliferation of smaller drones has increased drastically. Affordable technology has led to the widespread use of drones in conflicts both from state and non-state actors. These drones act in multipurpose roles such as reconnaissance and weaponised attack. And this applies to all domains, air, land and water.

“The 2020 Karbach war highlighted the growing role of drones in modern warfare. As a consequence, we have begun to focus on detection capability, interception accuracy and automation in open platforms. We now produce highly integrated systems in which the entire control chain – from detection to interception – operates in the smallest of spaces.

“The whole industry is now facing similar challenges. A completely new political and threat scenario requires us to rethink defence as we know it. The industry is becoming more reliant on advanced technologies to counter ever-emerging threats, requiring a skilled workforce to develop and maintain them.

“Key examples include the highly integrated modern-day tank or air defence turrets. Today, these house a whole package of different sensor, effector and command and communication systems still in a very small construction space. These may comprise missiles and guns and range from optical to 3D active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.

“While protection of the personnel must be guaranteed, situational awareness becomes even more an issue. Both daylight (TV) and infrared (IR) cameras, are continuously getting smaller, lighter and less energy-consuming while becoming more robust and resilient. Together with AI they enhance the understanding of the battlefield for an operator, being in charge of a system locally or remotely.

“This journey is also continuing with effectors. Even if the gun remains the backbone for the time being and are constantly evolving, specialised effectors such as lasers and small missiles will come onto the market and be integrated easily into future platforms.”

Marc elaborates on how it is important for professionals operating in the defence sector to pay close attention to any new industry trends, ensuring products are supported by the emerging technologies that will provide resilient, long-term support to their customer base.

“In order to stay relevant, technology is the key for new and more competitive products, by integrating advanced technologies and furthering digitalisation,” explains Marc. “This may sound familiar, but the life-cycle of the industry is far from normal – it’s decades long.

“Consider what is happening now: customers order an upgrade on their decade-old systems, for instance. This means we are looking for technologies and architectures that are resilient enough to endure extreme conditions and will be upgradable over the product’s life cycle. This means today’s digital technologies have to perform on platforms that come largely from the electromechanical age. This has serious impacts on the requirement of the applied technology. Both have to perform under extreme conditions and must be easily replaceable for both maintenance and upgrades.

“On the other hand, today’s market innovation cycles require the industry to have technologies available in products in two to three years. Therefore, we’re initially looking for a certain maturity in technologies, which we may adapt and improve to our specific needs.

“Digital engineering and collaboration are key to that. The industry is forced to work closely together in order to keep track of the market and develop optimised solutions. Therefore, the development approach must adapt accordingly to a complete model-based approach in all disciplines, enabling close cooperation with distributed teams. Model-based digital engineering enables those teams with different backgrounds or at different locations to design, develop and manage innovation in the most efficient way.

“While horizontal collaboration – the integration of external systems, subsystems or technologies from providers – is becoming a standard, vertical collaboration is relatively new. This requires the establishment of processes that allow for outsourcing the complete technology development to a certain maturity level to an external partner, while IP remains in-house. That’s been a real cultural change for the industry.”

By adopting new processes, defence sector businesses are better equipped to face industry-wide challenges – but Marc insists it’s also crucial to always look for new ways to encourage innovation.

“The shortage of skilled personnel on the market is a problem for the entire industry,” says Marc. “In addition to this, order backlog means that available resources are tied up in the operational business and focused on the successful completion of projects. At the same time, there is an acute need to adapt to new threats early on with our products.

“Because of this, I see it as most efficient to separate innovation and operational engineering, with a small team of innovation managers constantly preselecting promising technologies, then developing the most promising ideas to a certain maturity level.

“From there, implementation takes place with vertical development partners, who are flexible and understand the industries’ needs intimately and can use their expertise to create a minimal viable product (MVP) in a short space of time. That MVP will be the base to decide whether that technology should be pursued, or discarded. With this approach, we’re able to make decisions quickly, maybe even together with a potential customer and cover the maximum range of potential technologies.”

Making decisions quickly is critical in the defence industry, Marc stresses.

“One issue we’ve been dealing with is an increased number of possible threats,” says Marc. “If not already available from stock, hostile systems may be produced in masses due to short development and production cycles. Unmanned systems are a good example of this. Saturation becomes a threat at this point. These unmanned systems may be attacking in self-organising groups, they are referred to as swarms, increasing the threat level dramatically.

“Preparation for swarm is a key task for the industry and comprises consistently expanding the fire chain from detection, recognition and engagement. This begins with AI-enhanced situational awareness, which recognises swarm attacks as such and alerts the user. It continues with the integration of new effectors that suitably complement existing systems against these threats and allow the operator to engage with a number of targets simultaneously.”

According to Marc, AI has huge potential in partnering with human workers to best facilitate workflows.

“We can all agree that AI is a game changer in terms of future products and development,” notes Marc. “So far, the biggest return on this technology that we’ve seen is in development itself. Even if creativity continues to come from human beings, AI is relieving us of repetitive and time-consuming tasks in programming, testing and simulations – so engineers can make better use of their time.

“Now, we’re exploring how AI can help accelerate our workflows and enlarge our knowledge base. I am specifically focusing on the use of dedicated bots as a data source within our engineering teams. In this way, both, the engineering specific knowledge and general directives, as norms and standards are directly integrated in the development process. This is not restricted to software, but is now entering to the electro- mechanical domain, where it will have massive impact.

“In the engineering workflow, AI will affect the way of developing further. For example, by adding the power of AI to our simulations, we’ll be able to accelerate the process of design and verification to a much higher level AI will help to make better and faster design decisions, as their effect can be analysed in depth in advance with much less testing and prototyping. In this way, I expect simulation to become an engineering standard skill, which will be foundational in the innovation process.

“In regard to future products, they will be equipped with AI as a standard – for example, to support interpretation of the situation. I see in the short term the greatest potential in AI-based assistants, supporting faster and more reliable planning, threat detection and precision engagement. AI will also impact the resilience of products by supporting maintenance, service and training personnel, by fulfilling their tasks and routines.

“In my view, the human operator remains in charge of the system for the short- and mid-term. In an engagement, AI cannot replace the operator, who retains the final decision. However, they will be supported in their decisions by AI in the future, in order to observe, orient, decide and act faster and more robustly in any environment.”

Closing off, Marc highlights how technology and tools support sustainable initiatives.

“Preservation and protection of the environment is crucially important to all of us, and a significant part of continuous improvement,” insists Marc. “Today, all products are systematically screened for materials of concern and comply with national and international standards and directives.

“Military system field tests are resource intensive. The digital workflow combined with simulations can have a massive effect on the carbon footprint. In the past, we field tested parts and systems repeatedly until the desired result was reached. This caused a lot of material and energy waste, as well as a waste of time and money.

“Today, a good part of the testing is done before we get to that point. Don’t get me wrong, field tests remain a necessity, but are reduced in scope primarily for fine-tuning and verification of systems – which has a much smaller footprint.

“Products also receive carbon-friendly upgrades. While the combustion engine remains relevant, electrical power supply units with battery packs are reducing carbon emissions besides offering operational advantages, such as reduced acoustic and infrared signature. I believe we will see more progress in the future.”

Connect with Marc on LinkedIn.

ADDED VALUE

Exploring new cultures

“My job brings me a lot of fulfilment, but outside of work, I always try to engage in things that bring me joy,” says Marc. “I’ve been trying to embrace new experiences there – such as travelling at least once a year to a completely new place.

“I love being able to immerse myself in new cultures, new landscapes and new ways of life. Last year, I went on an incredibly enlightening trip to Japan for four weeks, which has helped me to understand the country on a new level.”

Maintaining wellbeing

“When it comes to unwinding, physical activity is crucial for me,” says Marc. “I go for a run three or four times a week, which helps me destress, get my focus back and maintain my overall wellbeing. There are always going to be times where I just need to recharge by doing as little as possible, but I’ve found that staying active in times of stress helps me feel like I’m coming back to my real self.”

DSCI London

“The DSCI London is one of the highlights for military technology every year,” says Marc. “I’ve attended for the past three years, and it’s always a very enjoyable experience. However, in 2027, there’s going to be a DSCI Germany for the very first time. This is something I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago, and it’s really encouraging to see how Germany is embracing this sector and this kind of industry event.”