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Austria Domestic and Foreign Sources of Military Equipment
Austria-Hungary was one of the world's major manufacturers of
arms. The Skoda company in Bohemia was the largest single arms
producer, fully meeting the empire's requirements with
considerable output available for export. Under the Second
Republic, from 1945 to the present, Steyr-Daimler-Puch, the
largely privately owned firm has accounted for the bulk of
Austria's production. Its manufacturing facilities are divided
among three divisions. The first, Steyr-Mannlicher, produces
small arms, notably the 5.56mm assault rifle, the standard weapon
for both readiness and militia forces and a popular export item
to military and police forces in many countries of the world. It
is also available in carbine and light machine gun versions. The
second, Steyr-Allradtechnik in Graz, is a producer of all-wheel
drive vehicles and trucks. The third Steyr division,
Spezialfahrzeuge AG, has developed the Austrian Spanish
Cooperative Development (ASCOD) family of mechanized infantry
combat vehicles in conjunction with a Spanish firm. The basic
version is equipped with a 30mm machine gun and carries eight
infantry soldiers in addition to a three-man crew. The firm has
also designed the Pandur armored vehicle for the Austrian army as
an antitank-missile-launcher platform.
Noricum, previously a subsidiary of the state-owned United
Austrian Iron and Steel Works (Vereinigte Österreichische Eisenund Stahlwerke--VÖEST; commonly known as VÖEST-Alpine),
manufactures artillery ordnance as well as the GHN-45 155mm gun.
In 1991 fourteen defendants, including leading executives of
Noricum and VÖEST-Alpine, were sentenced to prison terms for
violating Austrian neutrality laws by selling 200 GHN-45
howitzers and large quantities of munitions to Iran during the
Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. Noricum is also reported to have
marketed the guns illegally to Iraq. Noricum and Hirtenberger
Patronenfabrik, another state-owned company implicated in the
transactions, were later sold to the private firm of Emmerich
Assmann, ending the government's involvement in arms manufacture.
The Austrian armaments industry is heavily dependent on export
markets because the requirements of the country's forces are
limited, and domestic procurement is open to competition from
foreign suppliers. Production has to be set at far higher levels
than can be absorbed domestically in order for manufacture to be
economically feasible. Shrinking world demand and mounting
sophistication of weaponry impose serious pressures on the
industry. The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
has estimated that during the 1981-91 period, arms exports peaked
in 1981 at US$430 million. They declined minimally until 1987,
when they dropped sharply to US$60 million and later declined
further to US$10 million. In only one year, 1981, did arms
exports amount to as much as 2 percent of total exports. In 1987
and 1988, they amounted to 0.2 percent of total exports and to
even less in the next three years.
During the first years after its formation in 1955, the
Austrian army depended heavily on the United States for light
weapons, trucks, uniforms, and even helmets, with some additional
equipment transferred from the former British occupation forces
as well. The first aircraft were older Soviet models. The army
was initially supplied with American M-24 light tanks, which were
replaced by the M-47. Since the 1970s, the main battle tank has
been the M-60, which Steyr modernized to A3 standard beginning in
1986, using engines and other equipment from the United States.
Austria also made a major purchase of self-propelled howitzers
from the United States. Nevertheless, the importance of the
United States as an arms supplier declined in the 1980s. During
the 1985-89 period, estimates suggested that Austria imported
military equipment valued at US$240 million. The United States
was the source of US$70 million worth of equipment, and Western
Europe accounted for US$160 million worth of equipment. Very
little came from France and Britain, and restrictions in the
State Treaty precluded arms imports from Germany. Sweden--the
primary source of aircraft and missiles--was believed to be the
predominant supplier. Austria's purchases of Saab and Draken
fighters from Sweden were largely offset by Swedish orders for
Austrian munitions.
Data as of December 1993
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