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Drone CEO Says Europe Needs Better Defense Tech: Tech Summit

Drone CEO Says Europe Needs Better Defense Tech: Tech Summit

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In order to defend itself, Europe needs to begin investing more in defense technologies, such as robots, hardware, and also artificial intelligence, according to Florian Seibel, CEO of German drone company Quantum Systems.

Drone CEO Says Europe Needs Better Defense Tech: Tech Summit
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Russia’s war in Ukraine was “a wake-up call for European resilience,” Seibel said in an onstage interview at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in London. “The only way we can protect what we have in Europe is by investing in technology, in automation, in robotics that can monitor our borderlines. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”

“If we as a society do not want our kids to fight Chinese war robots we need to start acting now,” he said.

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Drone laws imposed by the European Union should be changed, according to Seibel, as they have prevented the continent from advancing its technological capabilities and have caused it to lag behind nations like China. Online-available Chinese toy drones perform better than certain European drones, he claimed.

The yearly European Tech Summit, organized by Bloomberg, dealt with the most important issues facing the globe today, such as geopolitical conflicts and the effects of climate change, and how digital businesses are attempting to both survive and provide solutions. Among other topics discussed were tech policy, clean technology, artificial intelligence, and the intensifying competition to control the semiconductor market.

The German drone startup Quantum Systems, which has been working in Ukraine since the Russians invaded it and was supported by Peter Thiel, said during the Bloomberg Technology Summit that it has secured €63.6 million which is approximately $67 million in additional investment.

The startup based in Munich said in an announcement on Tuesday that the Series B financing was managed by HV Capital and DTCP Capital and supported by Airbus Ventures, Thiel Ventures, as well as Project A. It happened after the firm secured an agreement for its Vector reconnaissance drones with the German armed forces.

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At the conference, Michelle Donelan, the secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology, said that the British government would permit Big Tech to keep some of its liberties for appealing antitrust rulings.

Donelan was reacting to a Bloomberg story that surfaced a while back on Tuesday, which stated that appeals for decisions made by the Competition as well as Market Authority’s emerging Digital Markets Division will be restricted in order to give significant IT businesses more attention.

Leidos

Leidos – The Largest IT Service Provider in the Defense Sector.

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Leidos is a global leader that provides cutting-edge technology solutions to customers in demanding situations. The main sectors that Leidos offers efficient solutions to are aviation, defense, information technology, and healthcare. Leidos provides a wide range of both hardware and software solutions from automatic equipment identification technology to security instruments and many more.

Leidos was formerly known as Science Application International Cooperation (SAIC) which is currently headquartered in Reston, Virginia, US. J. Robert Beyster founded the company in 1969 which now operates in four main divisions, namely, Civil, Health, Advanced Solutions, Defence & Intelligence. Roger Krone is the current CEO of the company and the company has approximately 32,000 employees.

The Establishment of Leidos

In 1969, Robert J. Beyster founded the company as Science Applications Incorporated (SAI) in San Diego, California. Before founding the company, Beyster was a scientist for Westinghouse Atomic Power Division and Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 1957, Beyster became the Chairman of the Accelerator Physics Department of General Atomics and later he sold stocks received from here to raise the money for his new company.

From the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey, Beyster’s company focused on projects for the US government. Initially, SAI focused on nuclear power and weapons effects study programs but soon the company was renamed as Science Applications International Cooperation (SAIC) and it eventually expanded its area of interest. The company worked on radiation therapy, assistance to the development of the cruise missile, post-accident cleanups in nuclear stations, design and evaluation of Stars & Stripes 87, design of the first luggage inspection machine, etc.

Leidos
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Beyster developed SAIC as an employee-owned company which helped in attracting many dedicated and highly motivated employees. This is the biggest reason that SAIC grew and expanded so fast in many sectors. Beyster retired in 2003 and in 2009 the headquarters of the company was shifted to Tysons Corner in Virginia. In 2012, the company had to pay a large sum of money to the City of New York for overbilling the city for seven long years.

The Founding Story of Leidos

In 2012, the company decided to split up into two independent trading companies thus forming a $4billion per year and $7billion per year publicly traded entities. The former focused on government services, systems engineering, technical assistance, financial analysis, and program office support. The $7billion company became an IT business specializing in national security, health, and the engineering sector. After the companies were split into two different businesses they were able to pursue more fields which created a conflict of interest as a whole.

In 2013, it was decided that the smaller company will continue with the name SAIC while the bigger company changed its name to Leidos and moved its headquarters to Reston. Leidos was the true successor of SAIC though it didn’t retain the name. So, the company retained SAIC’s pre-2013 stock price and corporate filing history. In 2016, Leidos announced one of the biggest deals in the defense sector as it merged with Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions. This doubled the size of Leidos making it a leader in the global defense industry. In 2019, the company ranked 311 on the Fortune 500 list and its annual revenue summed up to $18.569 billion.

Subsidiaries and Structure of the Company

Leidos has multiple subsidiaries in a diverse market which helped it become successful in a short period. Some of the subsidiaries of the company are Systems Made Simple (SMS), QTC Management, Leidos Engineering, Leidos Health, CloudShield Technologies, Reveal, Dynetics, Leidos Biomedical Research, etc. In 2018, the company again shifted its headquarters to Reston, Virginia, and the new building was completed last year.

As mentioned earlier, the company is divided into four main sectors. The Civil Division deals with the aviation system, security transportation measures, IT infrastructure, and efficient energy. The Health division is responsible for optimizing healthcare companies, securing medical data, and providing better solutions for data entry. Leidos’ Advanced Solutions Division focuses mainly on data analysis, integrating advanced defense systems, etc. The Defense & Intelligence Division works on providing air service systems, geospatial analysis, cybersecurity, intelligence analysis, etc.

About J. Robert Beyster

Beyster was from Detroit, Michigan, and went to the University of Michigan. He served in the US Navy during World War II which might be one of the reasons why he focused on governmental projects when he started his own business. Apart from founding SAIC, he started the Foundation for Enterprise Development in 1986. In 2004, this foundation established Beyster Institute which is dedicated to training and education on entrepreneurial grounds. He passed away on 22nd December 2014 in his home.