Rheinmetall Takes Control of DOK-ING

Rheinmetall has taken 51% control of DOK-ING, the Croatian company best known for unmanned ground vehicles and mine-clearance robots (Hrvatski izvoznici, Rheinmetall). In plain terms, a majority stake usually brings control of the board, the strategy and the export line. Zagreb has described the deal as the creation of a "European unmanned-systems hub". The ownership structure tells a sharper story: Rheinmetall has the deciding vote, and the public record does not show what safeguards, if any, limit that power.

What Rheinmetall Absorbed

DOK-ING’s main asset is the Komodo, a heavy hybrid platform built as a modular base for fire support, reconnaissance, logistics and mine clearance (Biz Srbija). Its founder, Vjekoslav Majetić, has kept 49%. The new Zagreb-based company has been rebranded Rheinmetall Unmanned Vehicles, placing DOK-ING’s technology inside a German group that already spans armoured vehicles, ammunition and air-defence systems. The Croatian firm is not merely partnering with Rheinmetall. It is being brought under its roof.

At the Zagreb launch, Rheinmetall chief executive Armin Papperger promised permanent investment (tportal.hr). He said the group would at least double DOK-ING’s previous revenue and create new jobs. Croatian reports went further, citing hundreds of millions of euro in planned spending, but those numbers have not been confirmed in Rheinmetall’s published documents or independently verified (Jutarnji list).

A Regional Supply Chain Under One Roof

Seen on its own, DOK-ING looks like a specialist acquisition. Put it beside Rheinmetall’s existing contracts in the region and the picture changes. In Romania, Rheinmetall has secured a package covering vehicles, air defence and ammunition, described at roughly €5.7bn, with deliveries running through 2028-2030 (DefenseRomania). The air-defence element alone is worth more than €1.4bn (Adevărul).

With a Croatian unmanned-vehicle subsidiary added to that footprint, future procurement begins to follow the path already laid down. Training, maintenance, spare parts, software updates and certification standards all pull buyers back toward the incumbent supplier. Moving away means retraining crews, rebuilding logistics and proving interoperability all over again. That is the practical machinery of defence-industrial lock-in.

Italy Negotiated Harder

Croatia’s leverage is clearest when set against Italy’s deal with the same company. When Rome’s national champion Leonardo joined Rheinmetall on land vehicles, it negotiated a 50-50 joint venture, legally seated in Rome and operationally based in La Spezia, with 60% of production activities planned inside Italy (Leonardo). Croatia accepted a 51-49 split in Rheinmetall’s favour, with no publicly documented floor for local workshare and no visible export-control safeguards.

Italy arrived with a national champion, existing production lines and political weight in Brussels. Croatia brought a specialist company and urgency. The terms reflect that gap. Joint ventures where neither side fully controls the company, such as the Franco-German KNDS land-systems group, whose planned stock-market listing was recently postponed amid doubts about its industrial capacity (Zonebourse), tend to move slowly. Majority takeovers move faster.

Who Owes Croatia an Answer

The public record explains why Rheinmetall wanted DOK-ING. It does not explain whether the company’s intellectual property will remain meaningfully anchored in Croatia, or whether export decisions will ultimately be made in Zagreb or Düsseldorf. No public evidence has emerged in the reporting cited here of Croatian FDI screening, the process through which governments vet foreign control of strategic firms, nor of parliamentary debate or merger review (Rheinmetall).

Europe is spending more on rearmament, and the smaller member states face the harder bargain. Countries without a large national defence champion can accept integration into someone else’s production and maintenance network, or they can negotiate safeguards over what is built, sold and exported. For Ireland, with its own anxieties about neutrality and defence integration, that question is familiar even if the industrial base is not. Croatia’s government has defended the language of a European hub. It has yet to show the safeguards that would make the phrase mean something.