IBD Deisenroth Engineering (de: BD Ingenieurbüro Deisenroth or 'IBD') was a German company specializing in the design, development, and production of protection systems and

armor Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, e ...

for military vehicles. They formed in 1981 to develop applications of a new

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...

suitable for use in

explosive reactive armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour used in protecting vehicles, especially modern tanks, against shaped charges and hardened kinetic energy penetrators. The most common type is ''explosive reactive armour'' (ERA), but variants includ ...

(ERA). Through the 1980s, they developed many individual applications for the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

. In 1994, they introduced their

MEXAS The Modular Expandable Armor System (MEXAS) is a composite armour system developed by the German company IBD Deisenroth Engineering. MEXAS was introduced in 1994 and has been applied on over 20,000 combat vehicles worldwide. The successor of MEXA ...

armor systems using

ceramic armor Ceramic armor is armor used by armored vehicles and in personal armor to resist projectile penetration through its high hardness and compressive strength. In its most basic form, it consists of two primary components: A ceramic layer on the out ...

which were very popular as upgrade systems for a wide range of armored vehicles, mostly in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. MEXAS was replaced by AMAP in 2006, which includes a wide variety of modular armor, both active and passive. The company started a production arm in 1991, Chempro. Chempro was purchased by

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG () is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was promoted to the DAX, Germany's leading stock market index, in March 2023. It is the largest German and fifth largest Europe ...

in 2007 and merged it with their existing ammunition division to form Rheinmetall Chempro. The two companies formed ADS Protection the same year to produce an active armor system ("hard kill"). On 1 June 2019, Rheinmetall purchased most remaining assets of IBD Deisenroth and formed Rheinmetall Protection Systems GmbH.

History

Ingenieurbüro Deisenroth was established in 1981 as an engineering and development office, focusing initially on developing a new explosive for reactive armor. Between 1981 and 1989, the firm undertook contract developments for the German Armed Forces, specifically for the Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB). In 1991, Chempro was founded as a production entity to complement Ingenieurbüro Deisenroth's development work. Since early 2007, Rheinmetall Defence has held a 51% stake in Chempro, now operating as Rheinmetall Chempro GmbH under the Rheinmetall Waffe Munition division. MEXAS protection technology was launched in 1994, with further developments between 2000 and 2006 leading to the creation of the AMAP product family, designed to meet the NATO standard 4569 or AEP 55. To enhance product marketing and customer proximity, several subsidiaries were established: EODC in Canada (2001), EODH in Greece (2003), and AST in France (2004). Additionally, the Swedish company Åkers Krutbruk Protection AB was acquired in 2003. In 2007, IBD Deisenroth and Rheinmetall Defence jointly founded ADS Gesellschaft für aktive Schutzsysteme mbH (ADS Protection) to advance active vehicle protection technology, specifically through the "AMAP-ADS" hard-kill system, which employs distance-active protective measures. Initially, IBD held 75% of the company’s shares, with Rheinmetall holding 25%. By early 2011, Rheinmetall had increased its ownership stake to 74%.

Products

The company developed two main products focused on enhancing both passive and active safety for armored vehicles:

(Modular Expandable Armour System): A passive protection system well-suited for retrofitting existing vehicles. MEXAS has been implemented on platforms like the Leopard 2 tank,

ATF Dingo The ATF Dingo is a German heavily armored military MRAP infantry mobility vehicle based on a Unimog chassis with a V-hull design, produced by the company KNDS Deutschland (formerly Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW)). The first prototype of the Dingo 1 ...

ASCOD The ASCOD (Austrian Spanish Cooperation Development) armoured fighting vehicle family is the product of a cooperation agreement between Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG and Spanish General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas. Both companies are now ...

, and the

Panzerhaubitze 2000 The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (), meaning "armoured howitzer 2000" and abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by KNDS Deutschland (formerly Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW)) and Rheinmetall in the 1980s and 1990s for t ...

. AMAP (Advanced Modular Armour Protection): A modular protection system combining passive and active safety measures across multiple layers. AMAP utilizes ceramic nanoparticles, providing lightweight yet durable armor. It has been installed on the CV90 infantry fighting vehicle and the

Patria AMV The Patria AMV (Armoured Modular Vehicle) is an Eight-wheel drive, 8×8 multi-role list of military vehicles, military vehicle produced by the Finland, Finnish defence industry company Patria (company), Patria. The main feature of the AMV is its ...

, and it is planned for use on the new German Puma infantry fighting vehicle.

References

German companies established in 1981 {{Germany-company-stub