_Selling_ weapons to nations not threatening you is a great business. You get to do some R&D, you employ quite a few people (often including manufacturing) and

_Selling_ weapons to nations not threatening you is a great business. You get to do some R&D, you employ quite a few people (often including manufacturing) and the buyer can't use the thing you sell them to advance their economy. _Buying_ more weapons than you need to defend yourself on the other hand is a terrible investment. If they just sit around and aren't used against someone (or at least the threat of you using them gets you something) is a colossal waste of money. Considering the German society is overall very pacifist, I don't see how buying more weapons (if even they build them within Germany) gets them much of anything.