FORMATION is Rebooting the Defense Industry

We are attending AFCEA 25 tomorrow and the day after (May 27 & 28, 2025). AFCEA is the “Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association” and with our defensetech focus on supporting logistics and planning, this is obviously an important conference for us.

Defense Tech is hot!

Since the beginning of the year, European NATO partners are under a lot of pressure to step up and deliver. After decades of peace time operations with occasional excursions to conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere, there is now a growing sense of urgency. And this is translating into action. Germany just announced massive budget increases for defense spending. And other countries are matching that. Order portfolios for companies in the defense industry are growing rapidly. These companies are now under a lot of pressure to deliver, deliver rapidly, and to modernize their businesses in the process.

The Ukrainian conflict feeds on donated tanks, armored vehicles, rockets, and ammunition from NATO member states. At the same time Ukraine is using and losing these at staggering rates not seen since WW II. Meanwhile, national armies have to replace and grow their own stocks of vehicles and ammunition.

The challenge

All this demand is of course fantastic news for the defense industry. But it does put them on the spot to deliver and deliver quickly. A big hurdle here is that a lot of their processes are still geared to peace time operations, slow procurement processes, and decades of budget cuts and generally not a lot of action. Rebooting this industry to step up is a non trivial task.

It requires, ramping up of production and allocating resources to do so. This includes finding people to do the work, making the most of existing production capacity, and rapidly growing this capacity to deliver as fast as possible. All this in a market that already has record employment levels.

Defense industries have to modernize their manufacturing and update their processes that haven’t been challenged in decades up to modern standards. They are too slow, too inefficient, and they are well aware. The business is there. But can they address the market? Currently they are scrambling to fix this. FORMATION is there to help.

How FORMATION is helping

Over the last three years, FORMATION has built out a successful deployment of our solution with the Bundeswehr in their vehicle maintenance facility in Jülich. With our innovative tracking solution, we’ve helped them optimize their processes and doubled their throughput, decreased time searching for parts and equipment, and improved use of space in their facilities. We’re happy to announce that this collaboration has been extended for another three and a half years. Also we are looking forward to hopefully expanding our collaboration with them.

Just like the defense tech industry is struggling to adapt, the civilian world is also struggling to adapt. Existing players in the market target civilian use cases that until recently had very little business from the defense industry. Now is not the time to enter into lengthy consulting projects, navigate the complex landscape created by procurement processes and internal bureaucracy. This could take years. Decades even.

What’s needed is companies that can be agile that can respond to your needs right now. That can quickly respond and adapt to what is needed. Agile companies like FORMATION are ideally positioned to exactly that. And we don’t do this by ourselves. At AFCEA we are there with some of our partners. Partners like Accenture who understand the industry and solutions, can bring the necessary expertise to deliver on deep integrations with e.g. SAP, security & confidentiality requirements . Partners like Cavea that we’ve worked with to deliver asset tracking for the army.

We are able to partner with companies delivering state-of-the-art tracking technologies such as Cavea and Zigpos, or bridge to existing ERP solutions via partners like Accenture.

AAS, DPP 4.0, and STANAGs

Additionally, we are ready for upcoming changes related to Digital Passport 4.0 & Asset Administration Shell that will already kick in next year. FORMATION supports these standards natively. The defense industry is facing those requirements as well. Additionally, it faces similar compliance goals coming from NATO! Standard Agreements (STANAG) are the way NATO formalizes its requirements. There are over a thousand relevant STANAGs covering everything from confidentiality labels, vehicle specifications, certificates, etc. These standards are well aligned with compliance goals our regular customers face.

The table below lists some examples of typical STANAG meta data that might apply to a Wolf vehicle (like the Bundeswehr refurbishes in Jülich)

We can bring all this data together using our easily extensible AAS meta data support to deliver, real, tangible improvements to your production processes.

What’s holding you back?

Our goal at AFCEA is to make the industry aware of our innovative solution and help them with meeting their aggressive delivery targets by helping them make the most of their existing floor space, optimize their processes. Additionally, we are looking to expand our partner network into the defense industry. Once you are ready, we can roll out a working solution in days or weeks. We’ll deliver tangible results: double digit improvements in throughput with existing staff and floor space. You’ll gain valuable insights that will help you improve your processes further. And we’ll help you build the digital infrastructure that you need right now.

What’s holding you back? Use the Zeitenwende cash to ship, not to shuffle spreadsheets. Come find us at AFCEA. We have a joint demo with our partners Accenture and Zigpos that is up and running at the Accenture booth. Come visit us. Let’s talk. Or reach out to us to learn more.