Bjoern Symank is a former German Army Aviation Captain who entered service in 1997 and went through several operational deployments as a transport helicopter pilot.
During that time he also realised several software projects for the Armed Forces. In 2008, he learned the peculiarities of the German procurement system as an IT officer in the Army Aviation’s Combat Development Division. He completed his service by the end of 2010 and joined Rheinmetall’s Airborne Systems Division as the responsible sales manager for tactical unmanned aerial systems. In addition to his national and international sales projects with the system KZO, he is engaged in several R&D projects. Bjoern Symank is a graduated business engineer and scientific assistant in industrial psychology.
The unmanned reconnaissance system KZO has been in service with the German Armed Forces since 2006. From 2009 onwards the system has been deployed to Afghanistan. Under harsh environmental conditions like the everywhere dust, icing and strong winds, daily missions had to be carried out. Some of the system’s unique features (e.g. containerised maintenance, rocket-assisted take-off, jamming-resistant data-link) have been seen with scepticism in the past, yet they have proven to be a guarantee for a reliable daily service. To share the experiences made, this presentation will give an update of the programme. This includes system upgrades during operation, lessons learned during operation and pros and cons of the systems unique features, leading to conclusions for future unmanned aerial systems from the company’s point of view.