With effect from August 1st, 2022, Alexander Heil is Director Sales and Branch Manager of the PLATH Group in Berlin.

The PLATH Group is a family-run, medium-sized group of companies with extensive market and technology expertise in data-driven crisis prevention, headquartered in Hamburg. The group of companies supplies the market with dedicated products, systems and services and is divided into five highly specialized business areas.

As Director Sales and branch manager of the new office in Berlin, Alexander Heil will drive the further growth of the PLATH Group. He represents the German business not only for PLATH GmbH und Co. KG but also for other shares of the PLATH Group such as INNOSYSTEC GmbH, PROCITEC GmbH, PLATH Signal Products GmbH & Co. KG and PLATH EFT GmbH.

The PLATH group of companies employs over 550 people in Germany and comprises of 15 companies.

Alexander Heil brings with him many years of experience in the German Armed Forces and the Federal Police. He states: “I am very pleased to be setting up the new representative office in Berlin as Sales Director and branch manager and to strengthen representation. I see the PLATH Group in a very good position to continue to drive growth continuously and sustainably.”

We have given the website of our PLATH Group member, PLATH AG in Switzerland, a facelift - the UX has been improved, structure and content optimised and completed. The new website is online now! Feel free to take a look...

From August 1, 2022, Dr. Franz Gumpitsch, after 3 months part-time, is now working full-time as COO and branch manager of Plath AG in Bern. PLATH AG has been a member of the PLATH Group since 2006, a family-run, medium-sized group of companies with extensive market and technology expertise in data-driven crisis prevention with headquarters in Hamburg. The group of companies supplies the market with dedicated products, systems and services and is divided into five highly specialized business areas. This focus guarantees outstanding professional competence, a high degree of innovation and comprehensive knowledge of the industry.

As COO and branch manager, Franz Gumpitsch would like to drive the further growth of PLATH AG, maintain and expand strengths in areas of competence such as communication jamming and system integration and strengthen this important role within the PLATH Group.

Gumpitsch was previously head of the train control systems and GSM-R department at Schweizerische Bundesbahnen AG (SBB AG) in the passenger transport division, where he was also responsible for the establishment, management and further development of the department. A special focus was on the negotiation and standardization of various service level agreements with suppliers of SBB AG. He also introduced a portfolio management based on agile aspects for business management within his superior department vehicle and system engineering. Before that, he worked for PLATH AG for a year and a half as a project and business case manager and held various management positions in the Austrian Armed Forces from 2008 to the end of 2015.

Dr. Franz Gumpitsch: "As COO and branch manager of PLATH AG I’m looking forward to expand the excellent positioning of the company within the group and on the market, and see the company well suited to consistently continue the growth course it has taken."

Germany-based PLATH GmbH & Co KG and Czech Republic-based company Primoco UAV just demonstrated that with joint efforts the first successful BVLOS-flight of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was made possible under an all-European LUC while regular air traffic was happening in a military airspace of the Bundeswehr in Manching. The versatile fixed-wing UAV “One 150” from Primoco´s portfolio is perfectly suitable for a range of tasks with its take-off weight of 150 kg and a payload of 30 kg allowing an operation time of more than 15 hours non-stop in the air. PLATH´s onboard multi-sensor technologies and airborne radio and transponder allowed safe air traffic management (ATM) and collected all necessary data for the successful mission.

The WTD 61 Geschäftsfeld 470 in Manching was given a mandate from BAAINBw L 5.2 to conduct flight demonstrations to assess the capabilities of the Primoco One 150. The flight was made possible with a LIGHT UAS OPERATOR CERTIFICATE (LUC) from Ingolstadt-Manching airport where the Bundeswehr unit WTD 61, GF 470 is located. It was the Primoco One 150's maiden flight with a LUC in in German airspace. Equipped with a LUC, there was no further need to obtain an approval from the national civil aviation authority of Germany - Luftfahrt Bundesamt (LBA). The frequencies for this flight were allotted by the federal network agency - Bundesnetzagentur (BNA).

All three flights have been successfully performed end of April. After ensuring seamless communication and procedures through a test flight in Visual Line of Sight (VLOS), the air space was opened for all other aircraft. During the following BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) and the BVLOS endurance flight the next day several missions were conducted with focus on flight parameters, navigational accuracy, and other aspects. The PLATH system consisting of onboard multi-sensor technologies and multi-platform connectivity helped the system pass all operational tests by the Bundeswehr with flying colours. In addition, the UAV is equipped with an airborne radio and transponder which made air traffic management (ATM) easy and safe and provided all necessary data for the future-oriented flight mission.

For safety reasons the plane carried a ballistic recovery parachute allowing to minimise the landing impact in case of an emergency. The Primoco flight crew is a holder of both, civil and military drone pilot licenses. The fruitful cooperation leading to this successful test proved that the team´s UAV may be easily integrated into the modern army structure and can perform its missions safely and effectively with compliance to latest aviation standards.

Heiko Fimpel, Director Presales at PLATH commented on this milestone: “I am happy to have this great partnership with Primoco, enabling us with their competence and engagement to bring our high-tech sensor systems over the area of interest and make this success possible. I´d like to thank the Bundeswehr for the competent, friendly and fruitful cooperation leading to this milestone in military aviation in Germany. As the UAV can be easily adapted to different types of sensor operation and integrated into the modern army structure this new vehicle category will have a great future ahead.”

The Primoco UAV SE CEO Ladislav Semetkovský commented the deployment as follows: “I also would like to thank the whole Bundeswehr team and base command, who provided exceptional support for making this evaluation possible. Although the operation took place under a civilian Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) the plane is designed for full compliance with military STANAG 4703 standards as well. The LUC was selected because it allowed us to perform the activities freely within the frame of our approval and with no delays or additional approvals needed. Our team enjoyed the conversations with representatives from various Bundeswehr units and departments as well as with our partner PLATH who gave us, as the Bundeswehr team, valuable feedback on our system. Obviously, the operation from a prestigious location such as Ingolstadt-Manching required perfect preparation and elimination of any potential risks limiting the base operation.”