DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Armin Papperger, head of the Rheinmetall armaments group, has called for significantly more military spending to make Germany capable of defending itself. "The Western world is not equipped for a conventional war," said the CEO of Germany's largest arms manufacturer to the Wirtschaftspublizistische Vereinigung in Düsseldorf. China and Russia have been heavily arming themselves. The German defense budget should be increased by at least 30 billion euros annually from the current 52 billion euros. "If these 30 billion are not invested in Germany, then the turnaround will fail."

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had called for a "turning point" in 2022 after Russia attacked Ukraine. The federal government provided a 100 billion euro special fund to strengthen the defense capability and compensate for deficits in the Bundeswehr. After the end of the Cold War, Germany had reduced its defense spending, making its stock of military equipment obsolete and emptying its ammunition depots. Too much had been saved, said Papperger, looking back on the past decades.

Rheinmetall benefited from the 100-billion-euro special fund launched a good two years ago and received orders for armored vehicles and other military equipment. Papperger pointed out that the special fund would be used up by 2026. An increase in the regular defense budget is therefore extremely important. Otherwise, the turnaround will fail. "This will then be a flash in the pan and we will no longer be able to continue accordingly." The defence industry is relying on politicians to keep their word and continue to place orders in the future.

Only with an increase of 30 billion annually would Germany be able to meet its obligation as a NATO state to invest two percent of its economic output in defense. "The Bundeswehr still lacks everything," said the armaments manager. He cited artillery ammunition as an example. "The ammunition we produce is now being given to Ukraine." In the past two years, Germany has brought "virtually nothing" into its own warehouses. Papperger estimates that it will take ten years of production to fill the stocks of artillery ammunition, making it clear that the federal government will also have to provide the necessary funding.

Germany is not an isolated case in the western world. "Whether it's Italy, whether it's Spain, whether it's France - the warehouses are all empty, for all conventional types of ammunition."

Rheinmetall has its administrative headquarters in Düsseldorf and its largest plant in Unterlüß in Lower Saxony, as well as various subsidiaries abroad. The Group has around 28,000 full-time employees and manufactures tanks, ammunition, artillery, anti-aircraft guns and military trucks. Last year, turnover rose by 12 percent to around 7.2 billion euros and net profit by nine percent to 0.6 billion euros. The order books are full and the management wants to accelerate growth.

On the stock market, the value of the company has increased around fivefold since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine - it is now worth around 22 billion. According to Papperger, this is not the end of the story: "I believe that we can get it up to 50 billion." He did not say by when this would happen. In addition to his position as head of Rheinmetall, Papperger is also President of the Federal Association of the German Security and Defense Industry (BDSV), making him Germany's top armaments manager, so to speak./wdw/DP/jha