"Higher defence spending decisions are now reflected in the order book," Chief Executive Officer Oliver Dörre said, tying a surge in contracts directly to recent political choices.
Order intake, backlog and headline numbers
Hensoldt’s half-year results, published on 31 July 2026, show a striking commercial pivot. Order intake doubled to €2.81 billion and the company’s order backlog passed the €10 billion mark for the first time, standing at €10.36 billion. Revenue rose 23.6 per cent to €1.17 billion while adjusted EBITDA reached €137 million, lifting the adjusted EBITDA margin to 11.8 per cent from 11.3 per cent. Book-to-bill climbed to 2.4 times.
Management left full-year guidance broadly unchanged rather than raising it: the company confirmed revenue of roughly €2.75 billion and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.5–19 per cent. Hensoldt also noted that the free cash flow conversion target of about 50 per cent was already lifted on 1 June thanks to higher customer advance payments.
Division drivers: Optronics and Sensors
Two divisions account for most of the half-year swing. The Optronics division’s order intake rose from €164 million to €971 million; management attributed much of that to optronics packages for infantry fighting vehicles, citing Puma- and Schakal-related work worth roughly €350 million and €450 million respectively. Sensors posted €1.98 billion of orders, up 57.6 per cent. Management identified a second PEGASUS batch at about €900 million and Eurofighter Mk1 radar extension work covering Spain’s Halcón program and Eurofighter Türkiye at approximately €580 million.
Both CEO Oliver Dörre and Chief Financial Officer Christian Ladurner emphasised that the commercial gains are the product of political spending decisions, but that the decisive question now is industrial execution: how reliably and profitably the enlarged order book converts into revenue and earnings.
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Talk to us →Geographic footprint: Europe dominates, Middle East remains marginal
The half-year report discloses revenue by region and shows Europe accounting for €1,045 million of the €1,167 million total; Germany alone represented €711 million. By contrast the Middle East line stood at €25 million — 2.1 per cent of half-year revenue — up from €15 million a year earlier. Africa rose to €31 million from €20 million.
Those Middle East figures represent a partial recovery from a falling trend: full-year Middle East revenues declined for three consecutive years, from €116 million in 2023 to €83 million in 2024 and €59 million in 2025, roughly halving while group revenue grew by about a third over the same period. Hensoldt’s staff outside Germany sit mainly in France, South Africa and the UK, with 726 people employed in South Africa at the end of 2025.
Regional contracts, joint ventures and early-stage activity
Hensoldt operates in the region through subsidiaries and joint ventures, including a wholly owned company in Riyadh; a 49 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi’s Atlas Advanced Optoelectronics & Security; and a 49 per cent Algerian venture at Sidi Bel Abbès that carries €35.2 million of equity. The most consequential regional award reported in the half-year came via Hensoldt’s South African arm: a multi-year September 2025 contract with Saudi Arabian Military Industries Advanced Electronics Company for communications intelligence and command-and-control capability, though the contract value was not disclosed.
Other regional activity remains at an earlier stage. A February 2025 memorandum with Abu Dhabi Ship Building covers Quadome and TRS-4D naval radars, integrated navigation and maritime electronic warfare. Egypt has entered a new round of discussions over the TRML-4D radar, tied to its IRIS-T SLM air-defence family.
Program cancellations, procurement choices and market reaction
The report and subsequent market days were not all positive. Germany cancelled the F126 frigate programme on 30 June; Hensoldt held contracts on that programme worth more than €200 million, with over a third already recognised as revenue. On 16 July, Saab — rather than Hensoldt — was selected to supply combat systems and sensors for the replacement MEKO A-200 frigates, closing off the German Navy’s next surface combatant as a potential route for the TRS-4D radar.
Investors reacted cautiously to the half-year print: shares closed 5.03 per cent lower at €79.76 on the day of the results after opening firm.
What this means for procurement leaders, South African partners, and naval planners
- Procurement leaders: Hensoldt’s expanded backlog and large sensor and optronics packages underline the company’s ability to win politically driven programmes, but procurement officials will be watching delivery schedules and profitability as the company converts backlog into revenue.
- South African partners and local workforce: the South African arm is the conduit for material regional work — notably the undisclosed-value September 2025 contract with Saudi Arabian Military Industries — reinforcing the strategic role of Hensoldt’s local capacity and its 726-strong workforce in South Africa at the end of 2025.
- Naval planners and systems integrators: the cancellation of F126 and the MEKO A-200 decision to use Saab remove a potential platform pathway for Hensoldt’s TRS-4D naval radar, leaving naval customers and Hensoldt to seek other maritime routes for that capability.
Hensoldt’s half-year presents a company sitting on substantially more work than ever before, driven by large optronics and sensor awards and underpinned by European revenues. The central question the company itself highlighted is not whether orders will arrive, but whether industrial execution can reliably and profitably convert the €10.36 billion backlog into the revenue and margins the market expects.
