French-Hungarian JV as next step in defence industry upgrade
Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Hungary’s defence minister, on Thursday welcomed the establishment of the French-Hungarian joint venture Satys PSP Hungary as the next step in the development of Hungary’s defence industry.
Satys PSP is the surface engineering partner of Airbus Helicopters Hungary and has set up a unit next to the Airbus helicopter parts plant in Gyula, in south-eastern Hungary.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that in addition to procuring military equipment, the government also wanted to bring production capacities to Hungary.
László Palkovics, CEO of Hungary’s state-owned N7 National Defence Industry Innovation Holding, the Hungarian partner in the JV, said one of the pillars of Hungary’s military upgrade strategy was the establishment of technological partnerships with foreign companies. He highlighted the establishment of the Airbus plant as a strong example of this, noting that it had quickly led to one of Airbus’s suppliers setting up a base in the country as well.
France’s Satys Group has been Airbus’s surface engineering partner for 30 years. It has invested 17 million euros in setting up its base in Gyula.
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Source: MTI
Now the interesting bit will be when this JV, Rheinmetal and other defense industry players start shipping their Made in Hungary wares to conflict zones.
Case in point: the Swiss have so far refused Rheinmetal re-export of munitions from Germany citing “neutrality”. Suspecting this is also the reason why Rheinmetal was suddenly so keen on opening a greenfield, here (probably some EU grants and incentives to sweeten the deal as well).