KNDS, Europe’s biggest tank maker, names Safran veteran Alary as CEO

PARIS — KNDS, the maker of the Leopard 2 main battle tank, named Safran veteran Jean-Paul Alary as chief executive officer to replace Frank Haun, who will step down later this month at the end of his term.

Alary, 58, is currently CEO of Safran Aircraft Engines, and will take the helm at KNDS in April next year, the company said in a statement late Tuesday . Haun will quit his role on Dec. 15, with KNDS Chief Financial Officer Philippe Balducchi serving as interim CEO until Alary takes over at the French-German maker of heavy armor and artillery.

The new CEO’s challenges will include ramping up production to meet surging European demand for tanks and cannons, with the KNDS order book more than doubling last year to €15.7 billion ($16.5 billion). Alary will also oversee first development orders for the Main Ground Combat System, a politically fraught Franco-German project for a future battle tank that’s already more than five years delayed.

“With Jean-Paul Alary, KNDS could win an outstanding expert in technology and management,” KNDS Chairman Philippe Petitcolin said in a statement. “He will further drive KNDS’s innovational power and economic growth.”

With a Frenchman taking over as CEO, the chairman job at KNDS will be filled by a German, according to French newspaper Les Echos , which said Wolfgang Büchele, the former CEO of Linde and Exyte, will replace Petitcolin.

KNDS in April reported its 2023 order intake increased more than 130%, which the company said was the strongest growth among the 15 largest European defense firms. Order intake of €7.8 billion was driven by the Leopard 2A8 main battle tank program, infantry fighting vehicles, Caesar howitzers and a growing need for ammunition, according to the company.

“The defense industry is facing challenging yet opportunity-rich times,” Alary said in a statement. “I look forward to actively shaping these developments as the CEO of KNDS.”

Alary is a graduate of the elite French engineering school CentraleSupélec, and started his career as an engineer at Safran in 1991. He became CEO of Safran Nacelles in 2015 and of the landing systems division in 2018, working under then-Safran CEO Petitcolin, and took charge of the aircraft engine business in 2020.

Safran in November named Stéphane Cueille to head the engine business starting in the first months of 2025, with the company saying Alary had decided to pursue his career outside the group.

KNDS was formed by the 2015 combination of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter, and the product portfolio is still split between competing vehicles developed by the French and German predecessor companies. While cooperation between KNDS France and KNDS Deutschland is progressing, the companies were rivals for decades, and real consolidation will require joint projects, Petitcolin said in June.

The company is working with rival Rheinmetall and defense-electronics maker Thales on the MGCS program, which is set to replace France’s Leclerc tanks and Germany’s Leopard tanks some time in the 2040s. Setting up the joint project company “is taking a bit of time,” meaning first development orders will probably be later in 2025 rather than early, Emmanuel Chiva, the head of France’s armaments agency, said in October.

France and Germany signed a letter of intent to develop of a main battle tank in 2018 and gave the go-ahead for an initial architecture study two years later, with the aim at the time to have a successor for the Leopard 2 and Leclerc starting in 2035.

European countries have more than 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks in their inventory, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies . With the MGCS now expected in the middle of the 2040s if not later, both KNDS and Rheinmetall are looking to fill the gap, showing off improved tank designs at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris in June.

Despite cooperation on the MGCS project, Alary will face a Rheinmetall that has been aggressively challenging KNDS for tank business in Europe. Rheinmetall won a €288 million contract from Hungary in December 2023 to develop the Panther KF51 to production maturity, and the company in October established a joint venture with Leonardo to build tanks and infantry fighting vehicles for Italy , with the KF51 the basis for a design to replace Italy’s Ariete tanks.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——豹2主战坦克制造商KNDS任命赛峰集团资深人士让-保罗·阿拉里为首席执行官，接替将于本月晚些时候任期届满卸任的弗兰克·豪恩。

现年58岁的阿拉里目前担任赛峰飞机发动机公司首席执行官，将于明年4月接任KNDS公司首席执行官一职。该公司周二晚间在一份声明中表示，豪恩将于12月15日卸任，KNDS首席财务官菲利普·巴尔杜奇将担任临时首席执行官，直至阿拉里正式接管这家法德合资的重型装甲和火炮制造商。

新任首席执行官面临的挑战包括提高产量以满足欧洲对坦克和火炮的激增需求。去年，KNDS的订单额翻了一番多，达到157亿欧元（165亿美元）。此外，阿拉里还将负责“主战地面作战系统”（Main Ground Combat System）的首批研发订单。这是一个政治敏感的法德合作项目，旨在研发未来的主战坦克，目前已延期五年多。

KNDS董事长菲利普·佩蒂科林在一份声明中表示：“让-保罗·阿拉里先生的加入，将为KNDS带来一位杰出的技术和管理专家。他将进一步提升KNDS的创新能力和经济增长。”

据法国报纸《回声报》报道，随着一位法国人接任首席执行官，KNDS 的董事长一职将由一位德国人担任，林德集团和 Exyte 的前首席执行官沃尔夫冈·比歇尔将接替佩蒂科林。

KNDS公司4月份公布，其2023年订单量增长超过130%，该公司称这是欧洲15家最大国防企业中增幅最高的。据该公司称，订单量达78亿欧元，主要得益于豹2A8主战坦克项目、步兵战车、凯撒榴弹炮以及日益增长的弹药需求。

“国防工业正面临充满挑战但也蕴藏着巨大机遇的时代，”阿拉里在一份声明中表示。“我期待作为KNDS的首席执行官，积极参与塑造这些发展趋势。”

阿拉里毕业于法国顶尖工程学院中央理工高等电力学院，1991 年在赛峰集团开始了他的工程师生涯。2015 年，他成为赛峰短舱业务的首席执行官，2018 年成为起落架系统部门的首席执行官，当时的赛峰集团首席执行官是佩蒂科林，2020 年，他接管了飞机发动机业务。

赛峰集团于 11 月任命 Stéphane Cueille 为发动机业务负责人，将于 2025 年第一月上任。该公司表示，Alary 已决定在集团之外寻求职业发展。

KNDS由德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司和法国奈克斯特公司于2015年合并而成，其产品组合目前仍由这两家前身公司分别开发相互竞争的车型组成。佩蒂科林在6月份表示，尽管KNDS法国公司和KNDS德国公司之间的合作正在取得进展，但两家公司几十年来一直是竞争对手，真正的整合需要开展联合项目。

该公司正与竞争对手莱茵金属公司和国防电子制造商泰雷兹公司合作开展MGCS项目，该项目计划在2040年代的某个时候取代法国的勒克莱尔坦克和德国的豹式坦克。法国军备局局长埃马纽埃尔·奇瓦在10月份表示，成立这家联合项目公司“需要一些时间”，这意味着首批研发订单可能要到2025年晚些时候才会下达，而不是在2025年初。

2018 年，法国和德国签署了一份关于开发主战坦克的意向书，并在两年后批准了初步架构研究，当时的目标是从 2035 年开始研发豹 2 和勒克莱尔坦克的后继车型。

据国际战略研究所统计，欧洲各国目前拥有超过2000辆豹2坦克。由于MGCS（多用途装甲侦察系统）预计要到2040年代中期甚至更晚才能问世，KNDS和莱茵金属公司都希望填补这一空白，并在6月于巴黎举行的欧洲防务展上展示了改进型坦克设计。

尽管在MGCS项目上与KNDS公司开展了合作，但Alary仍将面临莱茵金属公司的挑战，后者一直在积极争夺欧洲坦克市场。2023年12月，莱茵金属公司从匈牙利赢得了一份价值2.88亿欧元的合同，负责将“黑豹”KF51坦克研发至量产阶段。同年10月，该公司与莱昂纳多公司成立了一家合资企业，为意大利生产坦克和步兵战车，KF51坦克将成为意大利“阿里埃特”坦克的替代设计基础。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。