[4] Markets outside of Norway pose a growing and increasingly important part of business and represented approximately 80% of revenue in 2015.

The discovery of silver in the mountains around Kongsberg in 1624 meant that the city became an important mineral resource for the Danish Norwegian kingdom.

When the Danish-Norwegian union was dissolved about 200 years later there was a need to build up a strong defence that would contribute to independence and security for Norway.

Kongsberg's mining traditions - established over several centuries - provided a good basis for building a knowledge-based business.

The major international breakthrough came in 1888 when director Ole Herman Johannes Krag and corps gunsmith Erik Jørgensen showcased a new type of rifle.

The officer Ole Herman Johannes Krag and gunsmith Erik Jørgensen wanted to produce a new type of precision rifle, which was both easy to use, inexpensive to manufacture and which had revolutionary functionality.

The company therefore used its position and expertise from the defence industry to enter new markets and seek new business opportunities.

The company produced everyday necessities such as pots and pans, and contributed to the development of the defence and maritime industry.

The weapons factory was no longer under military command, and in 1953, the Norwegian Parliament, adopted a large-scale modernization and expansion of the company.

The aim was to build a national high-tech defence industry that met the needs of the Norwegian Armed Forces as well as those of NATO.

At first the company produced drive shafts, and then other components for heavy trucks, buses, tractors and agricultural machinery.

Having had a national focus in the post-war period, KONGSBERG again directed its attention and expertise towards the international market.

KONGSBERG's focus on the maritime industry began in the early 1970s and coincided with the discovery of oil in the North Sea.

Companies that would later become part of Kongsberg Gruppen, such as Simrad and Norcontrol, however, had already provided sonar systems and equipment for fishing and merchant marine for decades.

But the business advancement and progress coincided with national and international unrest, which had a serious impact on the company, as an outcome of so-called Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal, after illegal export to the Soviet Union machine tools banned by Cocom.

The two provided the Soviet Union with technology (Toshiba milling machines and Kongsberg computer numerical controls) that could be used to produce quiet submarine propellers, in violation of the CoCom agreement.

Providing the Soviet Union with technology that could make their subs harder to find and track was perceived as a significant threat to the security of the United States.

The newly formed company had for a short period of time a renewed focus on its core defence business.

The restructuring process that began in 1987 culminated in 1993 when it was decided that Kongsberg should be partially privatized and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

The co-development of Well Advisor[9] together with BP Also in 2008, parts of Kongsberg Maritime, which had worked with simulation technology in oil and gas, were reorganized under new management.

[3] The RWS allows the operator to control the weapon inside the vehicle, providing increased protection and reduced risk of both military personnel and civilians.

Kongsberg's largest single contract ever was signed in January 2014 with Oman on the air defence system NASAMS.

Kongsberg currently operates a worldwide network of ground stations including on Svalbard and Antarctica, used by e.g. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The acquisition of Horten-based Norspace AS 2011 consolidated space operations in Norway and contributed to KONGSBERG's commercial position within international aerospace and surveillance was strengthened.

Kongsberg's focus on maritime industries began in the early 1970s and coincided with the discovery of oil in the North Sea.

The company's supplies to the subsea, offshore and merchant fleet amounted in 2013 to over half of the Kongsberg Group's total revenue.

In 2019, the company unveiled its proposed Vanguard-class multirole warship, based loosely on commercial support ships.

The business area is headquartered in Kongsberg, has greater activity in the maritime cluster in Horten, in addition to offices worldwide.

In 2014 the company and Kongsberg Defence Systems[17] were charged by Norway, for corruption related to deliveries (worth around Norwegian kroner 1.5 billion[18]) of communication equipment to Romania during 1999–2008.

[29] Reactions to the investigation include professor Peter Gottschalk saying that "It is obvious that the company should have contacted the police and not discontinued the case.