Panzer, ammunition & rifles: This is happening in Germany’s arms industry

Rheinmetall has built a factory in Weeze (NRW) in order to manufacture important components for the F35 tapping bomber. Corporate boss Armin Papperger and NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) celebrate the completion of the construction today. The example shows: In view of increasing state expenditure for its military, Germany’s armaments industry is booming, large companies invest a lot in the expansion of their production capacities. An overview of the rapid industry growth with selected examples.

Rheinmetall (tank, artillery, air defense, ammunition)

Germany’s largest armaments group had a “backlog” of 62.6 billion euros at the end of March. This includes the order stock, framework contracts and expectations from other business relationships. At the end of 2021 – before the beginning of the Ukraine War – it was less than half of it at 24.5 billion euros. Sales and profit also go up steeply, the number of employees should increase by a quarter to 40,000 within two years. The stock market course has increased by 18 times since the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022.

Only the weakening business as a car supplier clouds the mood. Part of the vehicle workforce should switch to the armor area in the future. Rheinmetall is expanding its largest location in Lower Saxony in Lower Saxony for around 300 million euros by a new ammunition factory. The fuselage part for the F35 is manufactured in Weeze (NRW). The group is one of the most important arms suppliers of Ukraine, this is partially paid for by the federal government.

Hensoldt (sensors and radars)

The Ukraine War shows how important the electronic combat is. This trend benefits Hensoldt from Taufkirchen near Munich, a provider of sensors and radar systems. In the same period, sales rose by about half to around 2.2 billion euros. This year, the company with around 9,000 employees would like to redeem at least 2.5 billion euros and six billion in 2030. Radars of Hensoldt are used in the Ukraine War to protect the population from Russian air strikes and they are in the Kampfjet Eurofighter.

The federal government holds a blocking minority of a good 25 percent of the group, which once belonged to Airbus. Hensoldt has invested one billion euros in the past three years, for example for a new optronics location in Oberkochen. The company also produces periscopes for armored vehicles and submarine pullers.

Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, TKMS for short (submarine)

The Kiel subsidiary of the Essen industrial group Thyssenkrupp, according to its own information, is the world market leader for non-nuclear submarines and is busy until the beginning of the 2040s. In December, the Bundestag budget committee approved the construction of four other class 212CD submarines for the German Marine. This has been commissioned by ten such boats – six for Germany, four for Norway. TKMS recently also received an 800 million euro order from the federal government to modernize six U-boats of the Navy.

According to TKMS, the order book is around 18 billion euros. The shipyard also applies to the construction of submarines for Canada. In addition to its main shipyard in Kiel, the armaments group with a total of 8,500 employees also has a shipyard in Wismar in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2022.

Dynamit Nobel Defense GmbH is largely covered in public. It is known that DND of Ukraine made a total of 16,917 “Matador” tank fists available by April 2025 and was paid for it by the federal government. For the company with more than 300 employees, the Ukraine War is an enormous growth thrust. In a duty announcement in March 2023, the company wrote that sales in 2022 – i.e. the year of the war – was around 140 million euros – to more than twice from 2021 (58 million euros). Dynamit Nobel Defense GmbH belongs to the Israeli armaments group Rafael.

Heckler & Koch (assault rifle, machine guns, grenade launchers, pistols)

It was less than ten years ago that Heckler & Koch was extremely high in the red and the debt mountain. The situation was so tense that the workforce even agreed to unpaid over -work. This is snow from the day before yesterday, now the profitable weapon smithy hurries from one company maximum value to the next. Investments are made in the main plant in Oberndorf in the northern Black Forest, such as a new shooting center. Investments are to be reinforced in the coming years. Not only the Bundeswehr is equipped with new weapons, but also Baltic states and Norway – neighboring countries of Russia. Since the beginning of 2022, the number of employees has increased by a fifth of around 1,300.

MBDA Germany (steering and marching missile)

The Germany subsidiary of the European armaments group MBDA is also strong on growth course. Before the Ukraine War started, they had around 1,100 employees, now there are around 300 more. At the end of this year, the number should increase to more than 1,700. MBDA is investing in a new production in Schrobenhausen in Bavaria to produce steering aircraft for the US flight defense system Patriot-the group was given an order for the Bundeswehr and NATO partner. At its location, MBDA also produces steering aircraft for the Eurofighter, and the company recently received a larger order. MBDA also produces the Taurus marching aircraft.

Helsing and Quantum Dynamics (drones)

Drone manufacturers are very popular, they are also in demand among investors – the companies are attested to great growth potential. The armaments company Helsing from Munich recently collected another 600 million euros from investors. Helsing is already building the Kamikaze drone HX-2, which is used by Ukraine and is to be tested by the Bundeswehr. The company has recently also presented an underwater system as well as an artificial intelligence that is supposed to lead a combat aircraft in complex aerial combat scenarios. Quantum Dynamics from Gilching Bavarian, in turn produces surveillance drones.