Leonardo DRS announces new UK-based subsidiary
WASHINGTON — Leonardo DRS has launched a new UK-based subsidiary known as DRS UK, which will begin locally producing tactical radios, the company announced Monday.
“The newly purpose-built production site expands DRS’s manufacturing footprint and creates a dedicated local presence to support UK defence customers, industry partners and system integrators,” the company stated in a news release, which did not lay out further details about the facility or its planned output.
The release did say the new subsidiary will help support UK requirements for counter-drone capabilities, air defense and active protection systems. It will also serve as a “strategic hub” for DRS’s tactical radio business more broadly across Europe.
“Establishing DRS UK and launching a full local tactical radar capability, strengthens our ability to support customers and partners with the proximity, responsiveness and manufacturing capacity needed to meet evolving operational requirements,” said Leonardo DRS CEO John Baylouny. “This investment enables closer collaboration with UK industry partners and integrators to deliver counter-UAS, air defence and force protection capabilities that help protect the warfighter.”
The new UK-based organization finds itself in a unique position as a European subsidiary of DRS, which itself is the American arm of the Italian defense giant Leonardo. But when asked about the European market by Breaking Defense in an interview earlier this year, Baylouny said that Europe — like the United States — is seeking to acquire needed weaponry as soon as possible and has become somewhat agnostic on which country is providing the capability.
“At the end of the day, they have technology gaps that can be filled with product solutions from the US or otherwise, and they can be licensed to give them an indigenous capability,” he said in June. “So our approach to growing in those markets is really twofold: selling products or solutions, or licensing, or a combination of the two.”