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TKMS AG & Co. KGaA
TKMS builds submarines and naval warships for navies around the world.
TKMS is a shipbuilder for navies. It makes conventional submarines that run on diesel and air-independent propulsion rather than nuclear power, naval surface ships such as frigates and corvettes, and the maritime electronics that tie a fleet together. Its customers are governments and defense ministries, and they buy from TKMS because building a submarine is one of the hardest manufacturing jobs on earth — a pressure hull that must survive the deep, stay silent, and carry complex weapons and sensors, all built to military specifications over many years.
The company has a long history under a different roof. It was formerly called thyssenkrupp Projekt 2 GmbH, the vehicle thyssenkrupp used to carve out its marine systems business, and it now trades on XETRA under its own ticker as TKMS AG & Co. KGaA. That separation matters: a submarine program is a decades-long relationship with a single buyer, not a consumer product, so the business rises and falls on a handful of large government contracts and the political will to fund them. Submarines are the crown jewel. Germany is one of the few countries that export conventional submarines, and TKMS's boats — the Type 212 family and its successors — are prized for stealth and fuel-cell air-independent propulsion, which lets them stay under water for weeks. Navies in Europe and Asia buy them, and each order brings years of follow-on work in maintenance and spare parts. Surface ships are steadier but more crowded, with competitors across Europe chasing the same frigate and corvette contracts.
The risks are real. Defense shipbuilding is lumpy: a single delayed program or a cost overrun can swing a year's results, and export sales depend on government export approvals that can stall for political reasons. Still, the order backlog from long-term naval programs gives the business unusual visibility compared with most manufacturers. For investors, TKMS is essentially a bet on navies modernizing their fleets — and on Germany's willingness to keep exporting some of the quietest submarines in the world.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026