The Federal Government’s policy on exports of military equipment in Q1 2022 – preliminary licensing figures

According to preliminary figures for the first quarter of 2022, individual licences worth €2.88 billion were issued for the export of military equipment (of which €2.17 billion for war weapons and €713 million for other military equipment). This compares to a total of €981 million in Q1 2021. The increase is largely due to a major multi-year procurement drive in the Netherlands, which on its own accounts for 62% of the entire quarterly licensing volume. Also, the assistance being given to Ukraine in response to Russia’s war of aggression is mirrored in the figures, with licences totalling around €186 million being issued to support Ukraine’s self-defence.

State Secretary Sven Giegold said: “Germany is firmly supporting Ukraine in its right to self-defence, as is reflected by the current licensing figures for military equipment. Going forward, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action will continue to report on current trends and figures in a transparent manner, and it will do so at shorter intervals. This is in line with the aspiration of the new Federal Government to provide comprehensive and transparent information on its export control policy for military equipment.”

A total of €2.59 billion, i.e. a proportion of 89.8% (2021: 63.8%), went to licences for deliveries to EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries (of which €2.04 billion for war weapons – with the Netherlands receiving some 87.5% – and €546 million for other military equipment). For third countries, export licences worth a total of €293 million (2021: €355 million) were issued (of which €126 million for war weapons and €167 million for other military equipment). This figure includes export licences issued for developing countries*, which totalled €190 million (of which €120 million for war weapons and €69 million for other military equipment, most of which went to Ukraine).

In the first quarter of 2022, these ten countries ranked highest in terms of the approved individual export volumes:

According to preliminary figures, the total value of the licences for small arms and parts for small arms in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to €34.9 million (2021: €8.4 million). A total of €34.5 million of these exports (99%) went to EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries. The fact that almost all the licensed exports of small arms and small arms parts were destined for a privileged group of EU and NATO partners testifies to the highly restrictive policy embraced by the Federal Government with regard to exports of small arms to third countries.

* Developing countries and developing territories pursuant to the list of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, excluding upper middle income countries (column four of said list).