The hiring programme is part of Rheinmetall’s response to a sharp rise in military orders. Its backlog reached €80.4 billion during the second quarter, up 44% from a year earlier.
“As you know, we at the moment hire about 10,000 people per year, so we can pick up a lot of good people out of this 160,000 applications,” Papperger told analysts. He made the remarks during Rheinmetall’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call.
Management did not provide a geographical breakdown of the recruitment or identify the positions being filled. It also did not specify how many of the applicants had already joined the company.
The workforce expansion is running alongside investment in factories, production lines and inventories. Rheinmetall is adding capacity across ammunition, propellants, explosives, rocket motors and other defence products.
Papperger said the company’s production projects remained aligned with its expansion plans. Rheinmetall is reducing capital expenditure through synergies and cost savings, rather than cancelling factories or cutting planned capacity.
“We reduce CapEx at the moment, not because we reduce the factories,” Papperger said. “The capacities of our production lines are absolutely in line what we planned.”
The company is also carrying substantially more materials to support higher output. It took delivery of about €6.2 billion in supplies during the second quarter, contributing to operating free cash flow of negative €1.33 billion.
“We need these goods in our stocks, otherwise it’s impossible to grow,” Papperger said. The comments showed that Rheinmetall is accepting pressure on near-term cash generation while preparing to execute its order book.
The industrial ramp-up is already feeding through to revenue. Second-quarter sales rose almost 70% to €3.29 billion, while first-half sales increased 39% to €5.5 billion.
Rheinmetall’s operating result more than doubled to €562 million in the second quarter. Management attributed the increase to higher volumes, operating leverage and a favourable product mix.
The scale of annual recruitment highlights the labour requirements created by Rheinmetall’s expansion. The applicant pool gives the company flexibility in staffing new capacity while production volumes continue to rise.
