--- title: Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger Dismisses Ukrainian Drones as Toys. Claims there is no 'innovation'. description: Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger dismisses Ukrainian drones as toys. His company has not built a new tank since the invasion. The drones destroyed 11,000. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-03-31T00:25:33.315Z updated: 2026-03-31T00:26:06.028Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/armin-papperger-rheinmetall-ceo-dismisses-ukrainian-drones image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/ua-fpv-strike-drones-featured.webp categories: Supply Chains content_type: News region: Germany publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Person name: Armin Papperger --org-name Rheinmetall AG description: German business executive, chairman and CEO of Rheinmetall AG since 2013. Joined the company in 1990 in quality management and was the first internally promoted CEO in its modern history. Named The Economist best CEO of 2025. In 2024, US and German intelligence foiled a Russian assassination plot against him. jobTitle: Chairman and CEO sameAs: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Papperger - https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/company/management/executive-board/executive-board-overview --- Armin Papperger, the chairman and chief executive of Rheinmetall, told The Atlantic this week that Ukrainian drone production is like 'playing with Legos'. The biggest producers, he says, are 'housewives' with '3D printers in the kitchen'. He does not consider any of it innovation. 'This is not the technology of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, or Rheinmetall.' Those drones have destroyed more than 11,000 Russian tanks. They represent the biggest shift in warfare since cruise missiles. A $400 suicide drone, built from imported parts and assembled in garages, can destroy a vehicle worth tens of millions. General Christopher Cavoli, then the head of the US European Command, described Ukrainians as 'world leaders in one-attack-drone technology'. A senior Pentagon official told the Senate this month that Ukraine's 'level of innovation is out of this world'. How many new tanks has Rheinmetall built in that same period? None. Germany's tank production line has been [dormant since 1992](https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2025/11/20/knds-unveils-the-leopard-2a8-first-new-battle-tank-build-since-1992/). It did not restart until November 2025, more than three and a half years into the war. No army has received one yet. Handovers begin in April 2026, with full deliveries stretching to 2030, at a planned rate of [58 tanks per year](https://en.defence-ua.com/news/lithuania_joins_leopard_2a8_production_as_germany_struggles_with_32m_price_58year_rate-16798.html) and a sticker price of €32 million per unit, or about 80,000 Ukrainian drones. [South Korea builds 120 K2s annually](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/how-a-seven-year-old-startup-just-landed-a-1-1b-defense-contract-that-could-reshape-military-). Rheinmetall's own next-generation design, the KF51 Panther, was unveiled at a trade show in 2022 and remains a prototype with no orders and no deliveries. Everything Rheinmetall has shipped since the invasion is refurbished stock. Leopard 1s from the 1960s, Leopard 2A4s from the 1980s, Marder infantry fighting vehicles that entered service in 1971. ## Real 'Innovation' and smooth transmissions During The Atlantic journalist's tour of Rheinmetall's factory, a company employee admitted their tanks have no counter-drone protection. Ukrainian forces now operate a kill zone along the front, 20 to 30 miles deep, where drones spot and destroy anything that moves. Russian soldiers no longer have tanks in some sectors and advance on foot, by motorcycle, sometimes on horseback. In NATO exercises in May 2025, Ukrainian operators playing the opposing force took out 17 armoured vehicles in mere hours. Papperger has spent his entire career at Rheinmetall. He joined in 1990 in quality management, rose through weapons and munitions, and became chief executive in 2013. He has never worked anywhere else, perhaps that is part of the problem. Rheinmetall's main plant in Unterluss sits on 20 square miles the company has occupied since the late 19th century. Papperger takes investors hunting for wild game in the surrounding forests. On the firing range, the Leopard performs its party trick: driving with a full stein of beer balanced on the barrel of its gun. Wars are won by overwhelming force, not by low-volume tanks with smooth transmissions. These are battlefield weapons, not performance cars. This is the dynamic Papperger does not seem to understand. The scale of the decentralised manufacturing and supply chains Ukraine has developed IS the innovation. Those housewives will outproduce Rheinmetall at a fraction of the cost and those low innovation drones will wipe out Rheinmetall's entire annual production line in a matter of hours. ## Rheinmetall's promises in Ukraine In March 2023, Papperger visited Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Zelenskyy asked him to build an ammunition plant capable of producing 1.5 million shells a year. 'You got it. No problem,' Papperger said. Then: 'Do you have money?' Three years on, the factory is not built. Rheinmetall announced joint ventures to produce ammunition, gunpowder and air-defence systems in Ukraine. Apart from one repair shop, none have materialised. Papperger blames Ukrainian bureaucracy. He says permits come through faster in Germany. Given that his own company has not built a new tank since the invasion started, it is hard to believe that Ukrainian red tape is the bottleneck. ## Backlash and the Iran context The interview is published on 27 March. That same week, thousands of Iranian Shahed drones are hitting targets across the Persian Gulf. One struck a US command centre in Kuwait, killing six American soldiers. The US and its allies have exhausted stocks of expensive air-defence missiles and are rush-ordering cheaper drone interceptors from Ukraine. The weapons Papperger dismisses as toys are being deployed to protect American troops, not Rheinmetall's. Perhaps that is why he is upset. Zelenskyy responds: 'If every housewife in Ukraine really can produce drones, then every housewife could be the CEO of Rheinmetall.' Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine's defence industry adviser, posts: 'Meanwhile our #LEGODrones already burned more than 11 thousands of russian tanks.' Rheinmetall's corporate account posts a statement praising Ukraine's 'innovative strength and fighting spirit'. Papperger has not spoken publicly since. ## European defence procurement The Economist named Papperger its best CEO of 2025 for delivering a 158 per cent shareholder return. Rheinmetall's stock is up more than 15-fold since the invasion. That growth comes from governments panic buying from the same contractors that have always supplied them, not from innovation. Between 2022 and 2025, [European defence-tech spending rose thirteenfold](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/europe-s-defence-tech-boom-how-trump-is-sparking-a-2-billion-push-for-military-independence), but less than 30 per cent of orders go to firms outside the top ten contractors. Hundreds of billions are now earmarked for rearmament. The companies building the technology that has proved decisive in two active wars are not the ones receiving most of it. Papperger is right. We do need forward thinking innovators if we are to rearm, he just isn't one of them. ## FAQ **Q: Who is Armin Papperger?** Armin Papperger is the chairman and chief executive of Rheinmetall AG, Europe's largest arms manufacturer. Born in 1963, he joined the company in 1990 and became CEO in 2013 after spending his entire career there. The Economist named him the best CEO of 2025 based on a 158 per cent shareholder return. In 2024, US and German intelligence agencies foiled a Russian assassination plot against him. **Q: How are drones changing tank warfare?** Cheaply made drones costing as little as $400 have destroyed more than 11,000 Russian tanks in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces operate a kill zone along the front, 20 to 30 miles wide, where drones detect and strike anything that moves. Russian soldiers have abandoned armoured vehicles in some sectors and advance on foot, by motorcycle, or on horseback instead. **Q: What is the future of the European defence industry?** European defence spending is surging, with hundreds of billions earmarked for rearmament. The central question is whether procurement systems will continue directing money to legacy platforms like tanks and artillery, or shift toward the drone and counter-drone technologies that have proved decisive in Ukraine and the Iran conflict. Less than 30 per cent of European defence orders currently go to firms outside the top ten contractors. **Q: Can drones take out Western tanks?** In NATO exercises in May 2025, Ukrainian drone operators destroyed 17 armoured vehicles within hours. Rheinmetall's own Leopard tanks currently lack counter-drone defences. The $400 suicide drones used in Ukraine have destroyed more than 11,000 Russian armoured vehicles, making them the single most effective anti-tank weapon in the conflict.