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German weapons firms
德國武器公司
No farewell to arms
不和武器說再見
Political pressure and bribery allegations are unlikely to hurt Germany's exporters of military equipment.
看起來政治壓力和受賄指控都不會影響德國的軍事裝備出口公司。
SINCE the second world war, Germany has rarely sent soldiers to combat zones.
自二戰以來，德國幾乎不曾向戰爭地區派兵。
But it exports a lot of weapons: more than Britain, France or any other country besides America and Russia.
然而它卻出口了大量武器：超過英國、法國以及除美國、俄羅斯之外的所有其他國家。
Some German makers of military gear are part of civilian industrial giants, such as Airbus Group, and ThyssenKrupp, a steelmaker.
德國的武器制造商中有些隸屬于私有的工業巨頭，比如空客集團，還有鋼鐵制造商蒂森克虜伯集團。
But the biggest German company known mainly for weapons, Rheinmetall, is just 26th in the world league of arms-exporting firms.
然而，即使是德國著名的以武器業務為主的公司中最大的萊茵金屬公司，在世界武器出口公司中也僅僅排在26位。
And Krauss Maffei Wegmann, which makes the Leopard 2 tank, is 54th.
而制造出豹2坦克的Krauss Maffei Wegmann則位居54位。
Germans are, in general, proud of their export prowess.
總的來說，德國對自己的出口實力感到驕傲。
But although foreign sales of weaponry bring in almost 1 billion a year, they are a delicate subject, and lately beset by bad press.
但是盡管武器外貿帶來了將近10億歐元一年的利潤，這是一項非常微妙的行業，并且近日承受的巨大壓力。
Several German firms are accused of bribery in Greece.
數家德國公司被指控在希臘行賄。
A former defence official there has said that of 8m in bribes he took, 3.2m came from German firms, including Wegmann and Rheinmetall.
希臘一位前國防部官員曾說，在他被行賄的800萬歐元中有320萬來自于德國公司，其中包括Wegman和萊茵金屬公司。
On January 3rd KMW's alleged middleman was detained after a court hearing.
在1月3日，一位宣稱的KMW中間人在庭審后被拘留。
The firm itself denies any bribery.
該公司自己否認有行賄行為。
Atlas, a maker of naval weapons owned jointly by Airbus and ThyssenKrupp, is under fire too.
空客集團和蒂森克虜伯共有的海軍武器制造商Atlas也正受到打擊。
A former representative in Athens has reportedly admitted to bribery; the company says it is investigating the matter.
一位前雅典代表在報道中承認行賄；該公司則表示其正在進行調查。
On another front, the industry faces criticism over the countries it sells to—most recently over a deal to sell Leopard 2s to Saudi Arabia.
另一方面，該產業因其售賣武器的對象而受到批評—最近是因為向沙特阿拉伯賣出豹2。
Arms sales to anywhere other than NATO and NATO-equivalent countries are in principle forbidden.
向北約以及北約等同國家以外的國家和地區銷售武器從原則上說是禁止的。
But the Federal Security Council, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, can approve exceptions when foreign policy dictates, as long as they do not harm human rights.
但是由總理安吉拉默克爾領導的聯邦安全局可以在外交政策需要時批準一些特殊情況，只要他們對于人權沒有損害。
Peace campaigners fear that the exceptions are becoming less exceptional.
和平活動者們擔心這些些特殊情況正變得越來越不特殊。
NATO countries' budgets are being squeezed, so Germany's armsmakers are looking farther abroad.
北約國家正緊縮財政，因而德國武器制造商們只能將目光轉向了遠方的國家。
Rheinmetall, for example, has a target of 50% of exports outside Europe by 2015.
比如，萊茵金屬基團計劃在2015年前將歐洲以外地區的出口比重提高到50%。
Asia is a growing target: Singapore recently signed a 1.6 billion deal for ThyssenKrupp submarines.
亞洲是一個快速成長的目標：新加坡最近簽署了一份價值16億歐元的合同用于購買蒂森克虜伯潛艇。
German small arms are also popular. Heckler & Koch's G3 rifle is the world's most popular after the Russian AK-47.
德國的小型武器同樣很受歡迎。赫克勒-科赫G3步槍的受歡迎程度僅次于俄國的AK47。
Germany was a leader in pushing the UN to restrict the flow of small arms to war-torn countries.
德國是推動聯合國限制對戰爭頻繁地區的小型武器出售的領導者之一。
But such weapons leak across borders nonetheless.
盡管如此，此類武器依然會進入這些地區。
This is why Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor, in December urged Germany to restrict arms exports, calling gun deaths a slow-motion Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
這也是為何前總理赫爾穆特施密特在12月督促德國限制武器出口，他稱槍支引發死亡如同慢性的廣島和長崎原子彈爆炸。
His fellow Social Democrat, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, promised to restrict sales if his party made it into government after last September's elections.
他的社會民主黨同僚，弗蘭克沃爾特施泰因邁爾曾承諾如果去年9月選舉后其黨派成功執政，就會限制武器出口。
It did: Mr Steinmeier is now foreign minister, and sits on the Federal Security Council.
這一條件已經實現：施泰因邁爾現在是外交部長，并任職于聯邦安全委員會。
But Germany's arms exports are probably in little danger, since they have the same reputation for reliability as its cars and other industrial goods.
但是德國的武器出口看似并無危險，因為它的武器產品在可靠性方面有著和汽車及其他工業產品一樣的好名聲。
Even Pieter Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a critic of weapons sales, compares a Heckler & Koch gun to a high-quality Leica camera.
甚至斯特哥爾摩和平研究所的Pieter Wezeman，一位武器銷售的批評者，也將赫克勒-科赫槍支比作質量優異的徠卡相機。
Though German soldiers mostly stay clear of combat zones, German weapons are battle-tested; Leopard tanks in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, for example.
雖然德國士兵不曾踏足戰爭區域，德國的武器可是經過實戰檢驗的；豹型坦克就曾現身前南斯拉夫和阿富汗。
Moreover, there are ways to lessen the controversy of selling things used to wage war.
此外，還有許多方法來減少戰爭武器銷售的爭議性。
For example, making guns for a fighter jet assembled elsewhere is less visible than selling a German-made tank.
比如，為在其他地區組裝的戰斗機制造槍支同直接賣出德國制造的坦克相比要不顯眼許多。
Military transport, logistics, surveillance and protective equipment together account for five times as much of German defence firms' output as weapons and ammunition—and are less likely to be blamed for civilian casualties.
軍事運輸設備、后勤物資、監視和防護設備總計是德國國防公司武器和軍火出口額的5倍，而且這些生意不會受到引發平民死亡的譴責。
Stephan Boehm, an analyst at Commerzbank, sees such non-lethal materiel as a bright spot for German exporters.
德國商業銀行的分析師Stephan Boehm將這些非致密材料看做是德國出口的閃光點。
The flagging fortunes of Rheinmetall, in particular, should be restored by strong sales of the armoured transporters it produces in a joint venture with MAN, a lorry-maker.
需要指出的是，萊茵金屬公司的巨大財富中不少就源自于它和貨車制造商MAN聯合制造的裝甲運輸車輛的良好銷量業績。
Critics say the government is too willing to let arms firms export to dodgy regimes.
不少批評認為政府太想要將武器公司出口到過于冒險的區域。
The Federation of German Security & Defence Industries argues that strong exports are crucial to spread the development costs of the equipment Germany needs to defend itself.
德國安全和國防工業聯合會爭辯說繁榮的武器出口對于分擔德國發展國防設備的花費至關重要。
This would be less of a problem, the lobby group admits, if Europe's fragmented defence industry were consolidated; it says the government should not have vetoed a proposal last year to merge EADS with BAE Systems of Britain.
游說者們也承認，如果歐洲散亂的國防工業能得到統一的話，這個問題就會小很多；他們還提到，政府不應在去年否決EADS和英國的BAE System合并的提議。
Weapons account for less than 1% of Germany's exports.
武器出口在德國總出口中所占比重不足1%。
But it is a 1% that it, like other countries, is loth to give up.
但是如同其他國家一樣，德國無法割舍這1%。
