Germany has become the world's third largest arms exporter, with many of its weapons, including this submarine, earmarked for Greece.
Posted on 03/16/2010 5:54:18 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Booming Business
Germany Now World's Third Largest Arms Exporter
German arms exports more than doubled during the last five years, according to a new report, placing the country behind just the US and Russia on the list of the world's largest weaponry exporters. The opposition in Berlin wants more oversight.
When it comes to arms exports, few will be surprised that the US tops the list, with 30 percent of global expenditures on arms going to weaponry from America. Second place is likewise hardly a shocker -- 23 percent of the world's weapons originate in Russia.
Third place, though, is raising more eyebrows. According to the 2009 annual report put together by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Germany's weapons exports have more than doubled in the last five years, to 11 percent of the global total. German submarines and tanks, the report makes clear, have gained a number of loyal customers.
Given Berlin's tentative forays into geopolitics in recent years -- against a backdrop of deep domestic skepticism about German involvement in conflicts across the globe -- it is perhaps not surprising that the opposition is up in arms at the SIPRI ranking.
Indeed, the Greens are now demanding greater parliamentary oversight for arms exports. "This report shows that we need more stringent control over and sharper criteria governing arms exports," Green leader Claudia Roth told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Parliament must finally get the right to monitor the government's weapons exports, she continued, adding that such control was commonplace elsewhere.
Dangerous Arms Race
Most of German arms sales go to NATO member states, with Turkey and Greece
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Germany has become the world's third largest arms exporter, with many of its weapons, including this submarine, earmarked for Greece.
I contributed.
I bought an Hk p30 last year.
Supplying both sides of a war that will eventually happen...
As long as they are exporting them it is okay. When they start building Submarines and Arms for their own use and decide to expand the size of their Armed Forces, look out.
With all the arm twisting going on in Washington this week, we should soon be able to regain our large lead in arm exports.
How are the Greeks going to pay for it?
They’re broke.
“Germany Now World’s Third Largest Arms Exporter”
No surprise. They’ve always been pretty good at that sort of thing.
You suck and they hate you. 8^)
Yeah, send them to Greece. They’ll make Gyros out of them.
We all hate you. Forever. Maybe longer. Unless you let us borrow your Hk.
You can have it when you pry my cold dead fingers from it. :) It really is a fine firearm. In the 1500 or so rounds I've run though it, not a single malf of any kind and I've run all sort of different ammo.
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