Export licences for military equipment in the 1st-3rd quarters of 2022: 90% of licences are for close partners – €775 million to support Ukraine

According to preliminary figures for the first three quarters of 2022, individual licences worth €5.63 billion were issued for the export of military equipment (of which €2.76 billion was for war weapons and €2.87 billion for other military equipment). The equivalent figure for 2021 was €3.41 billion. Worth around €5.06 billion, around 90% of all the individual export licences (by value) in the first three quarters of 2022 were for deliveries to EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries along with Ukraine and South Korea (of which €4.13 billion was for EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries, consisting of €2.3 billion for war weapons and €1.83 million for other military equipment).

Third countries accounted for around €1.5 billion, or 26.7% (of which €456 million was for war weapons and €1.05 billion for other military equipment). Licences worth around €579 million were issued for other third countries apart from Ukraine and South Korea, equivalent to around 10% of the total value of the licences. The figure for third countries includes export licences for developing countries¹ worth €953 million (consisting of €447 million for war weapons and €506 million for other military equipment, most of which was destined for Ukraine, which is also covered by this category). This means that the share going to developing countries apart from Ukraine stands at 3.2%.

A large proportion of the overall figure of €5.63 billion, i.e. approx. €1.78 billion, is due to a large-scale multi-year procurement project from the Netherlands. Germany’s support for Ukraine in response to the illegal Russian war of aggression is also reflected in the figures for the first three quarters of the year, with licences totalling around €775 million being issued to support Ukraine’s self-defence. The Federal Government has published further information about the support provided to Ukraine here. 

Based on the coalition agreement, the Federal Government is currently drafting a military equipment export control act; the lead responsibility rests with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. For the first time, the Act is intended to explicitly enshrine the Federal Government’s military equipment export control in law. Expert meetings on this subject have been taking place since the spring with representatives of civil society, commerce and academia. Work is currently taking place on the key principles for this legislation; the draft will be coordinated within the Federal Government in the near future. Further information can be found here. 

More detailed information:
In the first three quarters 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 three quarters of 2022 amounted to €77.7 million (2021: €25.4 million). A total of €76.7 million of these exports (99%) went to EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries. This means that almost all the licensed exports of small arms and small arms parts were destined for the privileged group of EU and NATO partners.

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¹ Developing countries and developing territories pursuant to the list of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, excluding upper middle income countries (columns 1 to 3 of this list). The list can be found here.