The Rheinmetall armaments group needs reinforcements. Chief executive Armin Papperger expects the group to hire up to 3,000 new employees to handle the Bundeswehr upgrade.
Rheinmetall Rheinmetall Aktie, the arms manufacturer, expects to need 1,000 to 3,000 additional employees to handle new orders resulting from the German armed forces’ rearmament. This is what CEO Armin Papperger told the “Wirtschaftswoche” business weekly. The background to this is the German government’s investment plans. The Düsseldorf-based company has already received the first order for several thousand new helmets this week.
Even the increases in the defense budget in recent years have not yet been able to clear the investment backlog in defense projects, Papperger said. A lot of money has gone into large-scale projects such as the construction of frigates, he said. “The billions that were needed for this have then been lacking precisely in small and medium-sized projects.”
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced in the Bundestag on Sunday that €100 billion would be made available as special funds for the German armed forces and that, in addition, more than the two percent of economic output envisaged by NATO would be spent on defense every year in the future. Rheinmetall’s stock price jumped in response.
“It can’t be that in the event of an attack we won’t be able to defend ourselves after a few days because the Bundeswehr has run out of ammunition,” Papperger said. The stockpile of ammunition could be significantly increased within six to twelve months, he added.
The manager also does not expect the expansion of production to fail for lack of materials: Last year, he said, inventories were stocked up with goods worth around one billion euros, including steel, aluminum and special chips.
1 comment
The Rheinmetall armaments group needs reinforcements. Chief executive Armin Papperger expects the group to hire up to 3,000 new employees to handle the Bundeswehr upgrade.
Rheinmetall Rheinmetall Aktie, the arms manufacturer, expects to need 1,000 to 3,000 additional employees to handle new orders resulting from the German armed forces’ rearmament. This is what CEO Armin Papperger told the “Wirtschaftswoche” business weekly. The background to this is the German government’s investment plans. The Düsseldorf-based company has already received the first order for several thousand new helmets this week.
Even the increases in the defense budget in recent years have not yet been able to clear the investment backlog in defense projects, Papperger said. A lot of money has gone into large-scale projects such as the construction of frigates, he said. “The billions that were needed for this have then been lacking precisely in small and medium-sized projects.”
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced in the Bundestag on Sunday that €100 billion would be made available as special funds for the German armed forces and that, in addition, more than the two percent of economic output envisaged by NATO would be spent on defense every year in the future. Rheinmetall’s stock price jumped in response.
“It can’t be that in the event of an attack we won’t be able to defend ourselves after a few days because the Bundeswehr has run out of ammunition,” Papperger said. The stockpile of ammunition could be significantly increased within six to twelve months, he added.
The manager also does not expect the expansion of production to fail for lack of materials: Last year, he said, inventories were stocked up with goods worth around one billion euros, including steel, aluminum and special chips.