Germany
Although subject to EU arms controls, our data reveal that Germany sold most arms to the countries that were generally the biggest arms buyers, including when they were at war. It also sold arms to its NATO allies, the UK and US during the Iraq invasion, which it otherwise opposed.
Explore the graphics below to see how the likelihood of arms sales increases or decreases with different factors.
What factors might affect arms exports from Germany?
War
No significant difference was found between arms exports to countries at war or during peacetime.
Money
Arms sales from Germany are:
- More frequent as the military expenditure of the recipient increases 1
- More frequent as the total military acquisition of the recipient from all other suppliers increases
- More frequent as the GDP (per-capita) of the recipient increases 2
Relationships
Arms sales from Germany are:
- More frequent if the recipient is already a recent customer 3
Conflicts
Direct conflict participation
Germany directly participated in the following conflicts:
Weapons supplies to conflict participants
Germany supplied Major Conventional Weapons to active participants in the following conflicts:
Germany was an Other Significant Supplier to active participants in the following conflicts:
Top arms recipients
The greatest recipients of Major Conventional Weapons from Germany by value* between 1990 and 2018 are as follows:
*The SIPRI Trend Indicator Value (TIV) is a relative measure of arms transfer value, normalized for inflation and currency.
Full results
All metrics were investigated using regression analysis. The full results are reproduced here.
Footnotes
- 1Measured in constant 2018 millions of USD
- 2Both total GDP and GDP per-capita were analysed, with similar results. In each analysis whichever had higher significance is specified although the differences were minor.
- 3Transfers above 5,000 TIV in the last five years. The SIPRI TIV unit is a measurement of the value of arms which is independent of currency and inflation.
- 4This metric is only applicable to supplier states that also participated in the invasion or the main international force up to 2011.