German arms giant reports booming sales and profits
German arms giant Rheinmetall has reported a surge in operating profit for the first nine months of 2025 and a record backlog of orders, citing the Ukraine conflict and growing EU defense budgets.
Company shares have nearly tripled over the past year on rising demand for military hardware. Rheinmetall produces a wide range of weapons supplied to Ukraine, including tanks, armored vehicles, artillery shells, and ammunition.
Sales jumped by 20% to €7.5 billion ($8.7 billion), while operating profit rose by 18% to €835 million, according to the Dusseldorf-based firm’s third-quarter results released on Thursday. Rheinmetall said its order backlog reached a record €64 billion.
In the report, the manufacturer said it was expanding production, with 13 sites under construction or upgrade across the bloc, including a new plant in Lithuania and planned facilities in Latvia and Bulgaria. It noted that Ukraine, the EU, and Germany remain Rheinmetall’s core markets.
“We are becoming a global defense champion,” CEO Armin Papperger said.
Germany has become Kiev’s second-largest arms provider after the US. Berlin has changed its budget rules to permit long-term defense spending beyond the €100 billion fund created after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for the creation in Germany of “Europe’s strongest army.”
Moscow has condemned what it calls the West’s “reckless militarization,” arguing that continued arms deliveries to Kiev only prolong the fighting. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Merz of wanting to turn Germany back into “the main military machine of Europe,” saying Berlin’s actions demonstrate its “direct involvement” in a proxy war against Russia. He also warned that the broader EU was sliding into what he described as a “Fourth Reich.”
