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BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s defense industry says it stands ready to ramp up its output, including the kinds of arms and ammunition needed by Ukraine, but needs clarity about what governments want before investing in further production capacity.
Ukraine became the world’s third-largest importer of arms in 2022 after Russia’s invasion triggered a big flow of military aid to Kyiv from the United States and Europe, according to Swedish think tank SIPRI.
Some of those arms were transferred from Western military stocks to Ukraine, while Kyiv also has purchased equipment with its own money or funds provided by allies. But the rate at which Ukraine is using ammunition has raised concerns about strains on the capacity of Western defense companies as they try to keep both the Ukrainian military and their own resupplied.
“What’s important for us as an industry is to get predictability," Hans Christoph Atzpodien, the head of Germany’s arms manufacturing association, said in an interview this week with The Associated Press.
“That means we have to be clearly told which products are needed within which time,” said Atzpodien, managing director of the Federation of German Security and Defense Industries.
“And we are prepared,” he added. “The industry is much more flexible than it is given credit for.”
The association's members, which include major arms manufacturers such as Rheinmetall, can further boost production, such as by reactivating mothballed facilities and machines, and hiring more staff, he said.
“Of course, we also need a firm basis in the form of orders so the investments can be carried out,” Atzpodien said, adding that proposals to bundle purchases at the European Union rather than the national level could help, provided such a process does not slow down procurement.
German officials said a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers on Monday might yield a decision on bundling weapons purchases for Ukraine.
Arms manufacturers in Germany are also keen to see European countries harmonize their export rules to avoid being disadvantaged compared with competitors in some neighboring countries, Atzpodien said.
After initially hesitating to send lethal weapons to Ukraine, Germany has become one of Kyiv's biggest arms suppliers. The shift led Berlin to provide Ukraine with dozens of self-propelled Gepard anti-aircraft guns, Iris-T missile systems, howitzers and millions of rounds of ammunition, but left some Germans deeply uneasy about the possibility of being dragged into a conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
Still, Atzpodien said the final decision on where German-made arms can go should remain a matter for the government.