Czechoslovak Group (CSG)

Czechoslovak Group, known as CSG, grew from a small Czech ammunition trading company called Excalibur Army, founded in 1995 by Jaroslav Strnad, into one of Europe's largest privately built defense conglomerates. Strnad's son Michal took over the business starting in 2016 and became full owner in 2018, and under his leadership CSG expanded aggressively through acquisition, building a group that now spans more than a hundred subsidiaries across defense, aerospace, automotive, and rail industries on several continents. Ammunition and munitions manufacturing sit at the core of the business, and CSG has become one of the European Union's largest ammunition producers, a position it strengthened further with the 2024 acquisition of Remington Ammunition, giving it a major manufacturing base in the United States alongside its European plants. Italian ammunition maker Fiocchi Munizioni is part of the group as well, adding sporting and law-enforcement ammunition lines to the military side.

On the vehicle side, CSG owns Tatra Trucks, the century-old Czech truck maker whose off-road military chassis underpin artillery systems, air defense launchers, and logistics vehicles across NATO and beyond, and it has set up a dedicated military vehicle unit, Tatra Defence Vehicle, to develop armored variants purpose-built for defense customers. RETIA, another CSG subsidiary, builds radar and command and control systems, giving the group a foothold in sensor and battle-management technology alongside its heavier industrial businesses. The company also holds stakes in aerospace manufacturing and has been vocal about wanting to build a genuinely pan-European defense platform through further acquisitions, a strategy Michal Strnad has described publicly as aiming to make CSG the continent's largest defense company. Ukraine has been central to that growth.

CSG has supplied ammunition, vehicles, and equipment to Ukrainian forces since 2022, and Ukraine-related sales made up a large share of group revenue through 2024, alongside steady demand from Czech, Slovak, and other NATO militaries rebuilding stockpiles depleted by donations to Kyiv. In January 2026, CSG completed an initial public offering on Euronext Amsterdam, raising roughly 3.8 billion euros and valuing the company at around 25 billion euros in what was reported as the largest defense-sector IPO on record, with shares jumping more than 30 percent on their debut. The Strnad family retained the large majority of shares after the float, keeping effective control of the company even as it became publicly traded. Headquartered in Prague, CSG now employs more than fourteen thousand people worldwide and has continued acquiring smaller defense manufacturers across Europe and North America as it works to convert its Ukraine-driven growth into a permanent, diversified footprint across ammunition, vehicles, and systems.