Johannes Schaback
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Training Data · European Defense Sovereignty Starts in the Factory: Stark’s Uwe…
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Why Does Stark Want Systems as Complex as a Washing Machine?
Uwe Horstmann says Stark wants its systems to be about as complex to manufacture as a washing machine, because that is what mass production requires.
A two-year-old company can prototype the way a startup does and still design the item for a factory from the beginning. Visitors who know operations looked at the line and said it was about as complex as a washing machine. Horstmann took that as the target. His comparison is ordinary volume: going from a thousand units a month toward ten thousand a month, or a million a year, is hard, and it is still a problem factories already know how to approach. He is describing that class of product. He does not say Stark is building those quantities.
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Why Is the Staff Sergeant as Important as the General?
Uwe Horstmann says the staff sergeant who uses a system is as important as the general who buys it, and for Stark often more important.
The buyer is usually a senior official who controls the budget. The user is the soldier. Horstmann says that soldier's feedback is the input the company needs most. A light plastic case made the gap obvious. The team showed up with a box that was easy to carry. Soldiers asked for wood, because wood can go on a fire and keep them warm in the winter. The design from the whiteboard and the design that survives a winter field were not the same.
Stark treats those soldiers as the customer. The habit it is pushing against is dropping equipment on a unit and blam
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Why Does Stark Run Defense Programs Like a Venture Portfolio?
Uwe Horstmann says Stark runs about 10 to 15 programs at once, almost like a venture portfolio, instead of betting the company on a single system.
He describes the set as an innovation portfolio in the venture sense. Several programs move at the same time. The one he points to is a software-driven system, inexpensive next to older weapon systems, and the question he keeps is whether a soldier can actually use it. Usability, he says, includes the mental load on the person operating it, not only whether the technology works in a lab.
The portfolio is how Stark looks for that feedback across more than one bet. Capital can be raised. The scarce input is the user telling the team what is wrong.
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Why Does Stark Build More Than One Product?
Uwe Horstmann says Stark moves to more than one product because militaries describe their own capability gaps and the company does not see an abundance of offerings in the work it does.
Stark watches each gap closely while it is still being analyzed and formulated. The team then asks whether it can be a good supplier, whether it has a right to offer a solution, and whether one is already in the market. The portfolio choice follows from that exercise, and the same check reaches several products quickly. The push is almost a mandate: the team has to try, and it also has to counterbalance the complexity and loss of focus that come with multiple programs. The first reaction is still that a gap
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Why Does Stark Design for the Factory Before the Demo?
Johannes Schaback says Stark designs for the factory before it designs for a demo. Every program optimizes for time to market and for production readiness, and those two goals compete.
If the only goal is speed, the team can end up with something it can show and then cannot build in volume. A Formula One car is his comparison: it can be ready quickly, and almost nobody produces it in large numbers. Stark moves manufacturability earlier, which he calls shifting left, so that problem is not left as debt to fix after the prototype exists. Component choice is part of the same decision. The team does not always buy the most advanced camera. It buys one that is very good and can be purchased in l
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Why Is Stark a Good First Defense Job?
Johannes Schaback says Stark is a good first home for people who want to apply their skills to defense for the first time, because the company is as much a defense company as a high-growth tech company and understands both sides.
Stark looks for people in classic industry, at universities, in startups, and inside governmental institutions. The functions are broad enough that talent has to come from everywhere, whether someone is very senior or very junior. An existing established prime usually brings knowledge that is very valuable, and the startup mindset is equally important, even when people arrive from different domains and different cultures. Programs build products for the outside wor
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Why Does Stark Build Hardware and Software Together?
Johannes Schaback says Stark's accuracy comes from building the hardware and the software as one system.
A hardware system by itself is not enough, and a software stack that only works in a simulation is not enough. He says the compute budget and the memory had to be settled for the machine they actually fly, or the combined system would not do the job. The result he claims is sub-meter accuracy on a target moving at 60 kilometers per hour. He presents that as what the integrated design accomplished, and as the capability the team is proud of.
The point he stresses is the integration. Separate hardware and separate software did not get them there.
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Why Can Europe Build New Defense Companies Now?
Uwe Horstmann says Europe can build new defense companies now because two changes arrived together: Europe accepted that it must take more responsibility for its own defense, and people saw the battlefield shift toward software, AI, inexpensive production, and small-scale systems.
He says the United States has told Europe repeatedly to step up, and that the warning is right. Europe has to defend itself, because deterrence is how to keep living in peace. The world is probably not peaceful by default, yet it still has to be defended, and the only way to stay safe is by deterring a potential attacker. The understanding took hold just as new technology emerged. The systems are software driven a