DSEI 2025: Frankenburg Technologies ‘ramping up R&D team' for UK HQ

Frankenburg Technologies' Mark 1 missile being field tested at an undisclosed location in August 2025. (Frankenburg Technologies)

Estonia-based Frankenburg Technologies is on the pathway to open a UK office and is currently “ramping up the research and development (R&D) team” and hiring a wider team, Kusti Salm, CEO of Frankenburg Technologies told Janes in an interview at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London from 9 to 12 September.

“Through the industrial partnerships, through supply-chain integration, through infrastructure investments, through R&D we are going to expand, and this will be the strategy for becoming a UK company and European company by design,” Salm said.

On 10 September at DSEI 2025, Frankenburg Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MARSS to integrate Frankenburg's Mark 1 missile system with the NiDAR command-and-control (C2) platform.

The Mark 1, which Frankenburg calls a lost-cost air-defence missile, will become an effector option for NiDAR operators alongside radio frequency (RF) jammers, remote weapons systems, and interceptor unmanned aircraft systems (UASs). The Mark 1 missile is lightweight and rocket-fuelled, travelling at 300–350 m/s, equivalent to around Mach 1, said Salm. The Mark 1's onboard seeker provides terminal guidance. It is designed to destroy class 1–3 UASs flying at altitudes of 1,200 m to 2 km with its fragmentation warhead.

“Missiles carry one huge advantage over drone interceptors. Missiles bring speed and that will be very difficult to compensate for with drone systems,” Salm said.

Frankenburg plans to manufacture up to 100 of their air-defence missiles per day, according to Salm.