Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Ko KG is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 arms manufacturer and a subsidiary of the Diehl Stiftung GmbH with headquarters in Überlingen

Überlingen

Überlingen is a city on the northern shore of Lake Constance . After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis , and a central point for the outlying communities...

. Diehl BGT Defence produces mainly missiles and ammunition.

The company was founded in 2004 as result of the merger of Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik GmbH and Diehl Munitionssysteme GmbH & Co. KG.

In 1960 Bodenseewerke Gerätetechnik became the prime contractor for the European production of the American Sidewinder AIM-9B

AIM-9 Sidewinder

The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried mostly by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. The missile entered service with United States Air Force in the early 1950s, and variants and upgrades remain in active service with many air forces...

 air-to-air missile. Based on the experience with the Sidewinder, Diehl recently developed a progressive new seeker for a new type of short-range air-to-air missile - the IRIS-T

IRIS-T

The IRIS-T is a German-led program to develop a short-range air-to-air missile to replace the venerable AIM-9 Sidewinder found in some of the NATO member countries...

. This missile has reportedly a far better combat performance than the Sidewinder.

IRIS-T is currently being adopted by the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 and other European air forces. Diehl plans to deliver 4,000 IRIS-T missiles by 2011.

Diehl Aerospace

Diehl Aerospace

Diehl Aerospace GmbH is a Joint venture between Diehl BGT Defence and Thales Group operating in the field of Avionics. The headquarters of the company are in Überlingen, Germany....

 GmbH, a subsidiary of Diehl BGT Defence, produces avionic systems for aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus

Airbus

Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....

 and the Eurofighter GmbH

Eurofighter GmbH

Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH is a multinational company that co-ordinates the design, production and upgrade of the Eurofighter Typhoon, this includes incorporating the jet engines designed and manufactured by EuroJet Turbo GmbH.Founded in 1986, it has its head office in Hallbergmoos, Bavaria,...

.

Today Diehl BGT Defence has approx. 1,800 employees and Diehl Aerospace has approx. 1,200 employees. Diehl Stiftung GmbH has approx. 11,000 employees.

Diehl BGT Defence had also been severely criticized in the past for the production of cluster bombs and land mines.

Products

• AIM-9 Sidewinder
  AIM-9 Sidewinder
  The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried mostly by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. The missile entered service with United States Air Force in the early 1950s, and variants and upgrades remain in active service with many air forces...
  
  
• IRIS-T
  IRIS-T
  The IRIS-T is a German-led program to develop a short-range air-to-air missile to replace the venerable AIM-9 Sidewinder found in some of the NATO member countries...
  
  
• IRIS-T SL / IRIS-T SLS (in addition to MEADS
  Meads
  Meads is an area of the town of Eastbourne in the English county of East Sussex. It is situated at the westerly end of the town below the South Downs.- Boundaries :...
  
  )
• AGM ARMIGER
  AGM Armiger
  The ARMIGER was a missile developed by the Diehl BGT Defence to replace existing AGM-88 HARM missiles in the German Air Force by the end of the decade. It was to be an advanced high supersonic missile intended to destroy modern and future air defenses through direct hit...
  
  
• LFK NG
  LFK NG
  LFK NG from Lenkflugkörper Neue Generation , is currently under development by LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme and Diehl BGT Defence as the new short-range surface-to-air missile system for the German Army as a replacement for its former Roland air defence systems and as a part of the army's new SysFla...
  
  
• PARS 3 LR
• GMLRS
• RIM-116 RAM
• RBS15
  RBS15
  The RBS-15 is a long-range fire-and-forget surface-to-surface and air-to-surface, anti-ship missile. The later version Mk. III has the ability to attack land targets as well...
  
  
• IDAS
  IDAS (missile)
  For other uses, see Idas .IDAS is a short-range missile currently being developed for the new Type 212 submarine class of the German Navy....
  
   (submarine-launched missile, planned for the new Type 212 submarine
  Type 212 submarine
  The German Type 212 class, also Italian Todaro class, is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG and Fincantieri S.p.a. for the German and Italian Navy. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion system using...
  
  )
• Barracuda (supercavitating torpedo)
• EUROSPIKE
• HOPE/HOSBO
  HOPE/HOSBO
  HOPE and HOSBO are a new family of precision-guided munitions, currently under development by Diehl BGT Defence for the German Luftwaffe...
  
  
• SMART-Ammunition
• Panzerfaust 3
  Panzerfaust 3
  The Panzerfaust 3 is a modern and disposable recoilless RPG anti-tank weapon developed between 1978 and 1985 and put into service by the Bundeswehr in 1992...