They are not permitted to export arms into war zones. Or they hadn't been permitted until now. This is why they look for cooperation projects where the partner can do the exporting part with less domestic restrictions.
Concerning armaments: They have a history of wanting super ambitious things that get costly over time - with politicians stepping on the brakes after a while - which leads to rework and scaling down - that again gets the costs higher and the schedules delayed - for a not fully featured product finally. They ended up buying Pret-a-porter F-35s, Chinooks and P-9s recently.
Whenever they finish arms projects they get some nice kit if you look at submarines, trucks, tanks or rifles.