Russia Replaces U.K. as World’s 2nd Largest Arms-Producer

Russia replaced the United Kingdom as the second largest purveyor of weapons and military services in the world last year, surpassed only by the United States, an assessment published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday shows.

“Russian companies have experienced significant growth in their arms sales since 2011,” Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure program, declared. “This is in line with Russia’s increased spending on arms procurement to modernize its armed forces.”

According to the SIPRI Top 100 — which refers to the largest arms-producing countries in the world:

The combined arms sales of Russian companies accounted for 9.5 percent of the Top 100 total, making Russia the second largest arms producer in the Top 100 in 2017—a position that had been occupied by the United Kingdom since 2002. Taken together, the arms sales of the 10 Russian companies listed in the Top 100 increased by 8.5 percent in 2017, to $37.7 billion.

The United States kept its spot as the world’s top seller of weapons and military services last year.

“With 42 companies listed in 2017, companies based in the United States continued to dominate the Top 100 in 2017. Taken together, the arms sales of US companies grew by 2.0 percent in 2017, to $226.6 billion, which accounted for 57 percent of total Top 100 arms sales. Five US companies were listed in the top 10 in 2017,” SIPRI reports.

“U.S. companies directly benefit from the U.S. Department of Defense’s ongoing demand for weapons,” Aude Fleurant, the director of SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure program, proclaimed.

The U.K. fell to third place, but remained the largest arms producer in Western Europe, with sales of $35.7 billion.

Fleurant pointed out, “The combined arms sales of British companies were 2.3 percent higher than in 2016. This was largely due to increases in the arms sales of BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and GKN.”

In the context of SIPRI’s assessment, arms sales refer to the sale of military goods and services to military customers domestically and abroad.

SIPRI acknowledged that U.S.-based company Lockheed Martin remained the globe’s largest arms producer last year, with weapons sales of $44.9 billion.

Overall, the sale of arms and military services by the top 100 “totaled $398.2 billion in 2017,” marking a 2.5 percent increase from the figure the previous year.

The nearly $400 billion in sales also represents a 44 percent increase since 2002, the Stockholm think-tank noted.

Citing “a lack of available data on which to make a reasonable or consistent estimate of arms sales,” SIPRI conceded that the assessment excludes China.