DSEI 2025 — Germany must not develop an inferiority complex with the US if it is to help drive through an urgent European-wide rearmament program and become a “reliable partner” to Washington, claims the head of Germany’s largest defense contractor.
“We must not be, like we say, ‘a small boy who is working with a big giant,’” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told Breaking Defense at the DSEI trade show in London. “We must be on the same level as the United States of America and Europe. Germany has to play its role,” in defending the continent.
Prior to taking up the post as German chancellor, Freidrich Merz criticized US President Donald Trump’s “America first” doctrine and said he is prepared for the “worst case scenario,” hinting at a future where Washington would no longer be seen as a trusted ally.
But Papperger pushed back on political signaling from Merz for Germany to establish “independence” from the US.
“Chancellor Mertz now will invest the money, and the whole government will invest the money,” added Papperger, on Berlin’s plans to increase defense spending. “So I think that Germany, but also Europe…..will grow up to be a reliable partner of the United States.”
Trump’s pressure on Europe to do more for its own security has since led to most NATO allies agreeing to a 3.5 percent GDP defense spending pledge and an additional 1.5 percent GDP on related items like infrastructure.
The German government is investing “more than the rest of Europe” and years of underspending in the country’s armed forces before the war in Ukraine has been “fixed” under a Ministry of Finance plan to reach a military budget of €160 billion in 2029, said Papperger.
Rheinmetall holds robust industrial ties with US giant Lockheed Martin and strengthened cooperation further this week at DSEI by unveiling a next-generation “missile tank destroyer” technology demonstrator. The land system comprises a 6×6 Fuchs armored vehicle and Hellfire Longbow and Joint Air to Ground Munition (JAGM) missiles.
The latest move to join forces builds on partnerships across several other high profile weapon system programs including F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets and the Global Mobile Artillery Rocket System (GMARS) capability.
“We make a Europeanisation of that stuff,” said Papperger. “It’s not that we buy American technology, it’s that we implement American technology into Europe.”
Relying on European solutions alone would be counterproductive, he suggested.
“If you want to make a R and D [Research and Design] program in Europe to build up everything … you are not [going to be] ready in 10 years,” he said.
