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Armor X: the strength of a team with complementary skills
Based in Brittany, Armor X draws on the complementary strengths of different generations and experiences to accelerate the development of its projects. With a team comprising former naval mine-clearing divers, young talent and industry specialists, the company has developed an organisation that enables it to shorten design cycles and respond as closely as possible to operational needs.
Based in Brittany, Armor X draws on the complementary strengths of different generations and experiences to accelerate the development of its projects.
© Linda Verhaeghe
Founded in 2021, Armor X saw its business take off in 2023. The start-up continues to grow and now has thirteen employees. Its core business is design engineering. Whether the project involves an electric boat or a USV, the challenge remains the same for its teams: to understand precisely what the mission requires, to work with the relevant stakeholders and to design a vessel suited to its intended use.
This approach is underpinned by an organisational structure that leverages the diversity of its staff as a driver of growth. “We recruit a lot of young people because we need their energy and their perspective on the times we live in. It’s also a way of training these new generations,” explains Yannick Bian, CEO of Armor X. At the same time, the company ensures it brings in experienced professionals, particularly from the French Navy’s mine-clearing diving units: professionals who bring hands-on knowledge forged through numerous missions abroad.
Different experiences to move faster
The two executives at the helm of the company themselves embody this complementary approach. Vincent Hidden, COO and a former naval diver and mine clearance specialist, brings an operational and strategic vision. Yannick Bian brings a more industrial approach. Their two perspectives intersect and feed off one another, right down to design choices.
“At Armor X, 1 + 1 = 3,” says Bian, as it is precisely this diversity of skills that enables design cycles to be accelerated. The interplay between operational experience, the ideas of young recruits and the company’s technical and industrial expertise facilitates discussion and decision-making. Teams can thus move quickly from an expressed need to a designed solution, which is then refined.
In addition to its design office, Armor X is developing an activity dedicated to diving equipment for mine warfare, with a focus on exports while also seeking opportunities in the French market. International business already accounts for 70% of revenues.
Armor X aims to take advantage of Euronaval to observe innovations and the state of the art in various fields, and to meet its clients and forge new partnerships within the defence industrial and technological base (DITB). Drones are a central focus of this year’s event. This focus has taken concrete form for Armor X with the signing, announced yesterday, Thursday 5 November, of a partnership agreement with Safran for the design and manufacture of USV platforms.
- Linda Verhaeghe
