{"id":600759,"date":"2025-11-29T06:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T06:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/600759\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T06:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T06:34:21","slug":"the-german-arms-giant-capitalising-on-renewed-fear-of-russia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/600759\/","title":{"rendered":"The German arms giant capitalising on renewed fear of Russia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

He is the man arguably at the centre of Germany\u2019s <\/a>rearmament in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, and at the heart of that country\u2019s military industrial complex.<\/p>\n

As chief executive of German arms giant Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger has gone from leading a relatively unknown business outside Germany to now being at the head of one of the most high-profile companies in Europe.<\/p>\n

Under the 62-year-old\u2019s watch, Rheinmetall\u2019s shares have jumped from just over \u20ac90 three weeks before Russia<\/a> launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine to more than \u20ac1,500 today, as that war triggered a panicked investment in defence across Europe.<\/p>\n

In Germany this historic shift has earned its own name \u2013 the Zeitenwende \u2013 and Rheinmetall is the chief profiteer of Berlin\u2019s effective blank cheque approach to defence spending. Whatever Rheinmetall can make, Berlin will buy.<\/p>\n

In the last three years the listed D\u00fcsseldorf-based firm has agreed so many new contracts, plants and partnerships \u2013 from Finland to Bulgaria \u2013 that it expects its turnover to grown tenfold in the coming decade to around \u20ac120 billion.<\/p>\n

Rheinmetall is profiting not from war, Papperger argues, but a realisation around Europe that many overdid it with the post-Cold War peace dividend and invested \u201calmost nothing\u201d in defence and security.<\/p>\n

\"AA Rheinmetall Caracal Air Assault vehicle at the Defence and Security Equipment International fair in London, England. Photograph: Leon Neal\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want is peace on earth,\u201d said Papperger in conversation with the Berlin foreign press. \u201cBut we need a certain level of security and deterrence potential so that no one attacks us. One aggressor or the other views this lack of investment as a weak spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent decades Rheinmetall \u2013 with a century-old history that includes arming Germany in two world wars \u2013 operated discreetly away from the spotlight.<\/p>\n

But Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed the lighting drastically. Even traditionally pacifist-leftist parties here accept that, with a war going on a train-ride away from Berlin, pacifism in 2025 requires investment in security, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"If Irish households are so rich, why does it feel like an illusion?<\/p>\n

On this week\u2019s Inside Business, host Ciar\u00e1n Hancock is joined in studio by senior lecturer in housing at TUD Dublin, Lorcan Sirr.The episode starts with some recent good news, that the net wealth of Irish households is nearly \u20ac1.3 trillion, or an average of \u20ac228,000 each.Sounds good but as Lorcan explains, this is an illusion. He argues that Ireland isn\u2019t really a wealthy country in spite of what the statistics tell us. Lorcan also touches on the housing crisis in its many forms and goes through some possible solutions. And he does have some solutions. He also explains why he thinks judicial reviews of planning decisions haven\u2019t caused the housing crisis. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.<\/p>\n

So is defence \u2013 not attack \u2013 once again the best form of defence?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we all want is that we aren\u2019t attacked but the terrible thing is we have a situation where many in politics and in intelligence services say that in all likelihood there will be attempts to play with fire on the Nato outer border,\u201d said Papperger. \u201cWe want to be an essential part of making Nato ready to defend itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is referring to Nato risk assessments that, after its war with Ukraine, Russia may turn its attentions to smaller Nato members in the Baltics.<\/p>\n

German foreign minister Johann Wadephul went public with those concerns this week, saying \u201cat the very least, Russia is creating the option for itself to wage war against Nato by 2029\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0France and Germany to bring back military service as Russia threat loomsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Not everyone in Germany is happy that one future option is being hyped up as the most likely scenario. Over 100 MPs from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), junior coalition partners in Berlin, have signed a manifesto demanding as much effort and investment in diplomacy as cash for arms.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn employee of Rheinmetall works in the production of 155mm artillery shells in Unterluess, Germany. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke\/EPA <\/p>\n

Pushing the worst-case-scenario means even more business for Rheinmetall, of course, but Papperger insists his firm is only a recipient \u2013 not author \u2013 of such Nato risk assessments.<\/p>\n

It is up to states to place orders they feel appropriate but, given the recent rush, he thinks capitals should \u201cthink more strategically rather than in day-to-day, operative, do-gooder terms\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly many people are dying in Ukraine because of this negligent thinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rheinmetall\u2019s biggest divisions are weapons, ammunition, vehicles and artillery and Papperger disputes the argument that Ukraine shows the need to invest less in conventional arms and more in drones.<\/p>\n

Their rise, Papperger argues, merely reflects the static nature of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Even now, he said, 95 per cent of drones there are shot down with conventional equipment such as its Skyranger. The real race, he thinks, is to make such equipment cheaper to make drones uneconomical.<\/p>\n

\"RheinmetallRheinmetall staff work on the refurbishment of a German battle tank Leopard in Unterluess, Germany. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke\/EPA <\/p>\n

In either case, a potential Russian attack on a Nato state would look very different from the Ukrainian invasion, says Rheinmetall\u2019s salesman-in-chief.<\/p>\n

Any full-scale invasion would require traditional armoured systems to push back any invader, backed with lots of artillery \u201cbecause that\u2019s cheaper than anything else\u201d.<\/p>\n

All this profit has come at a personal cost for Papperger. A reported Russian assassination plot means he and his family now live with permanent police protection, at state expense.<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, Papperger sees greater potential for closer European defence co-operation \u2013 once, that is, the deals are lead by Rheinmetall. He brushes off criticism of dominance from, in particular from France, as sour grapes from cumbersome state-run firms faced with more agile privately-held operations like his.<\/p>\n

\u201cRheinmetall reacts like a start-up and grows like a start-up,\u201d he said, \u201cand has profitability of a blue-chip.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far Papperger has steered Rheinmetall\u2019s share price from \u20ac40 to around \u20ac1,600 now. Ever the salesman, he suggests a recent dip means firm is now, if anything, undervalued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a major investor in this firm,\u201d he said, \u201cand I am very relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lessons for Ireland from German unificationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He is the man arguably at the centre of Germany\u2019s rearmament in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[1824,332,9041],"class_list":{"0":"post-600759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-germany","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-ukraine-crisis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115631599204121185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}