Rüstungsindustrie

Arms industry.

More names of German arms manufacturers seem to be mentioned in thrillers and suspense novels set in the U.S. than are named in the German news, hence the following incomplete list of European-continent weaponmakers:

Airbus (was E.A.D.S.):

Germany’s biggest arms exporter, at >12 billion euros sales in 2010, ~27% of its total sales, reported Wirtschaftswoche.de. Airbus’s old defense & security division, named Cassidian, manufactures e.g. the Eurofighter jet at its largest plant near Ingolstadt, with another plant at Unterschleißheim outside Munich (both in Bavaria). Airbus makes an A400M troop transporter, Tiger combat helicopter, “N.A.T.O. helicopter 90″ with problematic autopilot, monitoring systems, electronica and missiles. With Thyssen, Airbus purchased a naval electronics firm.

Update on 30 Jul 2013: The Munich-based Airbus announced it was combining its Cassidian (weaponry), Astrium (aerospace) and Airbus Military branches into one “aerospace and arms,” Raumfahrt und Rüstung or Defense and Space division which will be headquartered at Ottobrunn, outside Munich.

Notoriously-investigated-for-corruption people involved with Airbus have included: company co-creator and then chairman Franz Josef Strauß (C.S.U.) and arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber.

Rheinmetall:

Düsseldorf-based company (North Rhine-Westphalia) that’s apparently one of the world’s biggest defense manufacturers, making Combat Systems, Electronic Solutions and Wheeled Vehicles at factories around the world. Anti-aircraft systems, munitions. Tanks include the Fuchs, the fox, and others: Rheinmetall is partnering with Kraus-Maffei Wegmann to build the Puma tank and the air-conditioned Leopard 2 tank. 2 billion euros in arms sales in 2010, about half its total sales, reported Wirtschaftswoche.de.

A man who was in charge of “Rüstung” for the Greek military from 1992 to 2002 and was recently found to have ~14 million euros in secret accounts told Athens prosecutors that he received 1.5 million euros to persuade the Greek military to buy the “Asrad” anti-missile system manufactured by Rheinmetall in a joint venture with the Swedish Saab company.

Thyssen-Krupp:

Headquartered in the German towns of Essen and Duisburg (North Rhine-Westphalia), this steel company has shipyards that make navy boats and submarines, including the U212 and U214 that use electric drives quietly powered by a fuel cell. With Airbus, Thyssen purchased a naval electronics firm. ThyssenKrupp made about 1.2 billion euros in weapons sales in 2010, reported Wirtschaftswoche.de.

Notoriously-investigated-for-corruption people involved with Thyssen have included: Karlheinz Schreiber.

Update on 03 Dec 2013: ThyssenKrupp recently raised some capital by selling ~50 million shares at ~17 euros each. The increase in stock meant the most important shareholder the Krupp Foundation, which didn’t buy in this time, lost its blocking minority. With the foundation’s ownership in the company dropping to ~23% from ~25%, it could no longer block decisions made at shareholders’ meetings [Hauptversammlung] and thus defend the firm against hostile takeovers and being sold off in pieces [Zerschlagung] by vetoing e.g. fusions, changes made to who’s on the supervisory board, changes to the articles of association or dissolution of the company, Wirtschaftswoche.de elaborated. As long as the Krupp Foundation owned ≤25% they were entitled to three seats on ThyssenKrupp’s supervisory board; under 25%, only two seats.

The reduction in the Krupp Foundation’s power within ThyssenKrupp might have increased the power of Cevian, a 20-employee Swedish firm that buys and sells companies but dislikes being called a hedge fund, wrote Süddeutsche.de. “One of Europe’s most profitable private equity companies,” Süddeutsche.de wrote, Cevian announced it had increased its ownership in ThyssenKrupp to ~6% in September and then nearly 11% after the recent stock sale. Managed by investors Christer Gardell and Lars Förberg, Cevian tends to buy a company’s stock, drive up the stock price and sell after a few years, Süddeutsche.de said, adding that Mr. Gardell has been accused in Swedish media of being a Gordon Gecko-type butcher ["Schlachter"] who likes to break up firms and sell them off piece by piece.

Diehl:

Company based in Nuremberg, Bavaria, that sells missiles. 1.5 billion euros in weapons-industry sales in 2010, about ~27% of its total sales, reported Wirtschaftswoche.de.

MAN SE:

Munich-based transport company that ordered the submarines built at the Thyssen shipyards for which some German prosecutors thought bribes had been paid to government procurement officials in Greece. In 2011, Volkswagen acquired control of MAN SE.

Kraus-Maffei Wegmann, KMW:

Munich-based company that manufactures tanks and self-propelled artillery. Kraus-Maffei is partnering with Rheinmetall to build the Puma tank and the air-conditioned Leopard 2 tank. Wirtschaftswoche.de reported that Kraus-Maffei is one of the few German companies that only makes weapons, with about 900 million euros in arms sales in 2010.

KMW was named by a man who was in charge of “Rüstung” for the Greek military from 1992 to 2002 and was recently found to have ~14 million euros in secret accounts. He told Athens prosecutors that he accepted bribes from weapons manufacturers in Germany, France, Russia, U.S.A. and Israel, and specifically from KMW to purchase 170 Leopard 2 tanks. KMW denied this was the case, saying Greece bought the tanks in 2003 after Antonios K. had left his procurement post. Mr. K. also said KMW paid him nearly three-quarters of a million euros to buy artillery.

Heckler & Koch:

Southwest German company that exports guns that get mentioned in U.S. murder mysteries. Headquartered in the tiny Rottweiler town of Oberndorf am Neckar, a centuries-old weapons industry center according to Wikipedia. H&K became British-owned in 1991 when BAe’s Royal Ordnance division acquired it, merging into defence giant BAE in 1999. A recent Zeit.de article said an important H&K investor has been the London-based German investment banker Andreas Heeschen, who signed papers buying the company in Dec. 2002 with his partner Keith Halsey and the BAE subsidiary Royal Ordnance. Another German, Alfred Schefenacker, the son of a man who founded a famous car mirrors manufacturer in Baden-Württemberg, bought in with 5% in 2010.

Zeit.de quoted an arms-industry-briefed Bundestag member from the Leftists party as speculating that a weapons manufacturer might be forced to export more aggressively and less selectively in order to stay afloat after a “financial shark” starts pulling money out of the company. The newspaper cited examples of a world-leader, “quality” garden tools manufacturer that went bankrupt five years after Mr. Heeschen bought it, and a soap manufacturer he purchased and kept in an “existentially threatening” situation according to an auditor interviewed by Wirtschaftwoche, Zeit.de wrote. Heckler & Koch has appeared to be struggling with heavy debt burdens: a 2010 lawsuit by four U.S. hedge fonds against Mr. Heeschen’s handling of debt agreements for the company alleged he and his people were using H&K “like a personal piggy bank” and had pulled $130 million out of the company, buying vacation homes, yachts and airplanes for personal use, according to court documents Wirtschaftswoche had seen. H&K denied this: “The private use of investment objects by shareholders” was always “privately paid for” by said shareholders.

Stuttgart prosecutors, regular police and a customs police investigated Heckler & Koch for violation of the Kriegswaffenkontroll- und Außenwirtschaftsgesetz ["War weapons control and foreign trade law"] after their guns turned up in countries for which no export licenses had been issued: rural Mexico, Georgia vs. Russia in 2008, Libya in 2011. The Zeit.de article quoted the same source as adding that “A third investigation will be looking into suspected bribery of foreign and German officeholders.” H&K and Mr. Heeschen denied that the company illegally exported weapons to countries not on their permit lists, but later an in-house letter in April 2013 told H&K employees it appeared likely that two long-term employees, lone gunmen acting alone, had in fact exported H&K guns directly to Mexico on purpose and not by accident via e.g. the U.S.A., Zeit.de said. The investigation was still ongoing in late August 2013.

H&K has also been criticized in Germany for helping build and supply gun factories in Saudi Arabia, turning that country into an arms exporter in addition to an enthusiastic arms importer. Their Saudi partner MIC (Military Industries Corporation) has since been selling these guns at international weapons shows and on the internet. Mr. Heeschen insisted every MIC sale from the joint venture had been reported to and approved by the proper German authorities.

Mauser, Feinwerkbau:

Other German gun manufacturers that have been based in Oberndorf am Neckar. The two guys who run L&O Holding said their company owned Mauser, in a 2010 interview in the Emsdettener Volkszeitung linked to by Süddeutsche.de.

Krieghoff:

Gun manufacturer in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg, on the Bavarian border). Listed as “corporate partner” of the National Rifle Association in documents acquired by the Violence Policy Center (U.S.A.).

Carl Walther:

Gun manufacturer in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg, on the Bavarian border) that is owned by PW Group.

Umarex:

Gun manufacturer in Arnsberg (North Rhine-Westphalia) that is owned by PW Group.

PW Group:

Holding company based in Arnsberg (North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Sauerland) that owns Walther and Umarex and has donated to U.S. gun lobbying groups such as the National Rifle Association and/or the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

SIG Sauer:

Switzerland’s Swiss Arms’s German subsidiary, a gun manufacturer headquartered in northernmost Germany, almost in Denmark. Süddeutsche.de reported that in 2013 Swiss Arms belonged to the German investment company L&O Holding.

Blaser:

Gun manufacturer in Isny im Allgäu (Baden-Württemberg, on the Bavarian border) that is owned by L&O Holding.

L&O Holding:

Part of a “Holding-Geflecht” [holdings meshwork, lattice; interwoven holding companies] run by Michael Lüke and Thomas Ortmeier of Emsdetten (North Rhine-Westphalia). Süddeutsche.de reported that L&O donated to the National Rifle Association according to N.R.A. documents acquired by the Violence Policy Center (U.S.A.).

Ferrostaal:

Paid 149 million euros in late 2011 to conclude a trial for bribing officials in Greece and Portugal to buy submarines. In the Greek bribery story unfolding in December 2013, schmier was paid in Greece to accelerate sales of the U-214 submarine built at the HDW company’s shipyard in Kiel on the northern coast but sold to the Greek military with the Essen-based Ferrostaal’s help (North Rhine-Westphalia). The Greek defense official found to have ~14 million euros in secret accounts told Athens prosecutors he received bribes in the U-214 deal from an employee of the Atlas company, which kits out submarines and is now majority-owned by ThyssenKrupp.

Tognum, now Rolls-Royce Power Systems Holding:

Group that manufactures tank and naval engines, based in Friedrichshafen (Baden-Württemberg). It includes non-aircraft divisions from Daimler’s spun-off MTU; MTU’s aircraft engine manufactories became the Munich-based MTU Aero Engines.

Update on 07 Mar 2014: Daimler plans to sell its shares in what was known as Tognum to its partners at Rolls Royce. According to Wirtschaftswoche.de, Daimler first spun off the company under the name of MTU Friedrichshafen in 2005, selling it to the investor EQT. They renamed it Tognum and held an initial stock offering in 2007. In 2008, Daimler bought in again. In a 2011 joint venture, Daimler and Rolls Royce purchased the company entirely and took it back off the stock exchange. Tognum’s name was changed to Rolls-Royce Power Systems Holding in early 2014.

MTU Aero Engines:

A Daimler-Chrysler subsidiary headquartered in Munich that makes jet fighter engines among other things. Owned by New York private equity company KKR from 2003 to 2005; Wikipedia said KKR said they sold all their MTU stock on German stock exchanges in 2005. Wirtschaftswoche.de reported MTU Aero made 486 million euros in weapons sales in 2010, 18% of its total sales.

Update on 19 Feb 2014: Uproar in the Bundestag after the Greens discovered the responsible Bundestag committee made a 55-million euro payment to MTU in December 2013 without obtaining Bundestag approval as was necessary. The payment was compensation for a 2011 decision to reduce the German military’s Eurofighter order from 180 to 140 fighter jets. But budget rules require the ministry to obtain approval from the Bundestag’s budget committee [Haushaltsausschuss] for every single expenditure >25 million euros. The two state secretaries responsible for making the payment apparently did not consult with the defense ministry’s management [Hausleitung] as prescribed either. Germany’s new defense minister said she was shocked and, said Spiegel.de, invited all responsible persons in her ministry to an Arms Board [Rüstungsboard] meeting to discuss the defense department’s biggest procurement projects. After the meeting, she fired the two state secretaries and said the Bundeswehr will be thoroughly examining its ~1200 procurement projects over the next three months.

Daimler:

Daimler’s subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Military Vehicles exports them around the world, including to the Gaddafi regime in Libya. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.

Siemens:

Huge electronics and trains manufacturer in Erlangen, Bavaria, that partnered with IBM to replace the Bundeswehr’s “information and communications technology,” codenamed Projekt Herkules. Costs originally promised at 6.8 billion euros now expected to run to at least 7.8 billion, as estimated by the Association of German Taxpayers [Steuerzahlerbund e.V.] which tries to track German military cost overruns.

Trovicor:

Headquartered in Munich, this surveillance technology firm was originally created at Siemens twenty years ago, where it was called Voice & Data Recording. It was combined into an Intelligence Solutions department at the joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks in 2007, alleges German Wikipedia, and sold to a Munich firm of private investors in 2009. The company has branches in Dubai, Pakistan and Kuala Lumpur. Only governments are said to purchase Trovicor products, such as their “Monitoring Center” (formerly “Siemens Monitoring Center”).

FinFisher or FinSpy, a.k.a. Gamma International GmbH, FinFisher GmbH:

A joint English-German (Munich) enterprise that sells software exploits to governments. E.g., “The FinFly Exploit Portal offers access to a large library of 0-Day and 1-Day Exploits for popular software like Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and many more.” They sell products for accessing e.g. computers and phones, with packages for e.g. remote intrusion or U.S.B. stick penetration sold together with training for remarkably low prices. Clients include governments such as Hosni Mubarak’s in Egypt, it is alleged. English Wikipedia alleged that the umbrella company, Gamma Group, specializes in surveillance and monitoring and is owned by a man with an English name via a shell company in an offshore tax paradise. German Wikipedia alleged that that man’s son now owns the company (85%) while a man with a German name owns the other 15%, and that the German government supports the company by providing export credit guarantees [Hermesbürgschaft, Hermesdeckung].

Mowag:

Swiss company that makes armored vehicles. Founded in 1950 in Switzerland, it is now owned by the U.S. weapons manufacturer General Dynamics. In 2003, General Dynamics merged it with Spain’s Santa Barbara Sistemas and Austria’s Steyr Spezialfahrzeug to form their General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems business unit, headquartered in Vienna.

Update on 06 Mar 2014: The Swiss parliament voted 94 to 93 to overturn a ban on exporting weapons to countries with human rights problems. Proponents for overturning the ban said Swiss companies shouldn’t be disadvantaged economically because they can’t sell weapons to e.g. Saudi Arabia like e.g. Sweden or Austria. What’s funny is that the Spiegel.de article reporting this showed tanks made by Mowag AG, which belongs to the U.S.A.’s General Dynamics, which also owns the Austrian competitor.

Swiss UAV:

Switzerland-headquartered drone manufacturer that has partnered with Sweden’s Saab Group.

BAE Systems:

British firm that’s one of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers. Said to make jet fighters, military submarines, aircraft carriers and bits of French nuclear weapons, though they announced they’d discontinued their production of land mines and cluster bombs after public protest. Buys, sells and owns pieces of many other weapons manufacturers around the world.

Serious corruption investigations of BAE apparently by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office, the U.K.’s National Audit Office, the U.S.’s Department of Justice and a Tanzanian prosecutor whose life was threatened, about sales to countries such as Chile under Augusto Pinochet, the Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania.

Rolls-Royce:

British aircraft engine manufacturer that makes jet fighter engines, submarine nuclear reactors. Partnered with Bavarian car-maker BMW, who bought their car-manufacturing subsidiary.

MDBA:

Trans-European missile manufacturer that’s been acquiring missile companies from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, U.K. and U.S.A.

MDBA’s German branch, which used to be called LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH, makes “smart bombs,” cruise missiles or guided missiles. It was headquartered outside Munich but has been moved to a small town near Ingolstadt, Bavaria.

While touring Kurdistan in January 2014, Bundestag member Jan van Aken (Leftists) and journalists traveling with him were shown Milan anti-tank missiles, manufactured by MDBA in a German-French partnership, that Al Qaeda is now using to fight in Syria. It’s not clear exactly how these particular bombs got to where they were found, but Germany sold thousands of Milan missiles to the Assad government in the 1970′s. Now Al Qaeda-affiliated groups have managed to divert some and are fighting with them. Although France was usually listed as the seller of these “so-called small arms,” NDR wrote, Germany had a veto right to stop any sales. Islamist rebel groups have apparently uploaded videos of themselves plundering Assad-family weapons caches that include Milan missiles. Syrian videos have also been uploaded showing the missiles in use, including ones of more recent manufacture than the 1970′s.

Saab:

The famous Swedish car company was apparently only a subsidiary to a large Swedish aerospace and defense manufacturer. Sometimes partners with the U.K.’s BAE. They make unmanned aerial systems, aerostructures, fighter jets, unmanned underwater vehicles, sensor systems, jammer systems, “signature management systems,” missiles, torpedoes, ground combat weapons, remotely operated (ground) vehicles, radar systems for land, sea and air, electronic defense systems, and provide military training and education. Military jets include the Gripen.

A man who was in charge of “Rüstung” for the Greek military from 1992 to 2002 and was recently found to have ~14 million euros in secret accounts told Athens prosecutors that he received 1.5 million euros to persuade the Greek military to buy the “Asrad” anti-missile system manufactured by Rheinmetall in a joint venture with Saab. Antonios K. also said he received ~240,000 euros to encourage purchase of Saab’s Arthur locatory radar system.

Finmeccanica:

Italian defense contractor that has delivered to the Assad government in Syria. In partnership with various firms around the world, Finmeccanica makes jet fighters, military aircraft, helicopters, space stuff, defense electronics, security electronics, “defense systems.” The Italian government still owns a stake in the company. Two recent C.E.O.’s have had to step down after corruption charges. In a 2013 article, Spiegel.de said about Finmeccanica that “Italy’s largest manufacturer of planes and weapons is said to have passed opulent bribes to foreign customers, from which admittedly a portion had to flow back to the donors.”

Hacking Team:

Milan-based firm that sells surveillance software to governments, including ones with questionable human rights records.

Beretta, Benelli, Franchi:

Italian companies that export guns mentioned in U.S. murder mysteries. Listed as “corporate partners” of the National Rifle Association in documents acquired by the Violence Policy Center (U.S.A.).

Glock:

Austrian company that exports guns mentioned in U.S. murder mysteries. Listed as “corporate partner” of the National Rifle Association in documents acquired by the Violence Policy Center (U.S.A.).

Steyr:

Austrian company that exports guns mentioned in U.S. murder mysteries.

Steyr Spezialfahrzeug:

Austrian company that makes armored vehicles. General Dynamics bought it from the U.S. car manufacturer General Motors’s weapons division in 2003 and merged it with Spain’s Santa Barbara Sistemas and Switzerland’s Mowag in 2003 to form their General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems business unit, headquartered in Vienna.

FN Herstal:

Fabrique National d’Herstal, Belgium, which Wikipedia alleges is Europe’s largest small arms manufacturer and owns the famous U.S. firms Winchester (U.S. Repeating Arms Company) and Browning. Listed as “corporate partner” of the National Rifle Association in documents acquired by the Violence Policy Center (U.S.A.).

Dassault Group:

French company whose subsidiaries e.g. manufacture aerospace vehicles and equipment, fighter jets, missiles, logistics systems and military simulators. It owns France’s second-largest newspaper of record, Le Figaro.

DCNS:

French company majority-owned by the French government that makes Armaris submarines, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and e.g. amphibious assault ships. DCNS and Thales partnered to create the Armaris submarine manufacturer.

Investigated in France for allegations of bribery in e.g. Malaysia and Taiwan.

Thales:

Large French defense manufacturer, partly owned by the French government. Thales and DCNS partnered to create the Armaris submarine manufacturer.

Wikipedia said a financial advisor to South African president Jacob Zuma’s A.N.C. party “was found guilty of organizing a bribe on behalf of Thales” and the World Bank has blacklisted Thales for bribery. Thales was told to pay the biggest bribery fine in modern French history in the 2011 resolution of a 1991 case involving the sale of frigates to Taiwan, a dead Taiwanese procurement officer and alleged large ferbribery slush funds in Swiss bank accounts, back when the company was called Thomson-CSF.

VUPEN:

Montpellier-based French firm that calls itself “The Leading Provider of Defensive and Offensive Cyber Security Intelligence.”

Santa Barbara Sistemas:

Spanish company that makes armored vehicles, weapons systems and ammunition. Acquired by the U.S. weapons manufacturer General Dynamics in 2001. General Dynamics combined it with Austria’s Steyr Spezialfahrzeug and Switzerland’s Mowag in 2003 to form their General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems business unit, headquartered in Vienna.

(RISSSS toongs in dooze tree.)

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