Germany is among the world’s top arms suppliers, and in 2014 they ranked 6:th in the World by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).  Only the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain are ahead.

Germany produces everything from civilian and military firearms and ammunition to battle tanks (The mighty Leopard, for instance) and naval vessels – and they seem very successful at selling what they produce.

Germany’s small arms ammunition sales increased tenfold in the first 6 months of 2016, setting a new record (vs. the same period 2015). That’s quite an increase, and I can only guess that deliveries are a bit late.

Hungry firearms around the world help Germany tenfold ammunition sales.

Obviously the majority of the sales go to armed forces, but it would be interesting to see how much civilians are stockpiling?

The germans have recently been told to keep food and water for at least 10 days at home, in a civil defense plan. Anyone clever, owning a firearm, would without doubt also include some (or a lot) of ammunition in their personal defense plan.

Above: Heckler & Koch MR223, Made in Germany. 

Government-approved small arms ammunition sales increased from €27 million to €283.8 million.

The majority of sales, €275 million, went to other EU countries or NATO allies or similar “safe” countries like Australia, New Zealand, Japan or Switzerland. A small share were approved for sales to Iraq, most likely to Kurdish militias backed by Germany.

France and Poland are the top destination for the ammunition.

Above: MEN Metallwerk Elisenhütte GmbH, the almighty 300 Win Mag. military grade vs. a poor piece of 12 mm steel at 600 meters. The AP still won.

The sales of weapons (hardware) rose slightly from 2015 to just over €4 billions. However 2015 was a record-breaking year for weapons exports. Turkey is a big buyer.

The forecast? Arms and ammunition sales will continue to rise in 2016 and 2017.

Source: Deutsche-Presse Agentur (DPA)

Above: Bipodded H&K MR223, Made in Germany, with Swarovski Z6i and Spuhr mount (made elsewhere).