IHS Reports ‘Record-Breaking’ $65B in 2015 Global Defense Trade

IHS has reported a “record-breaking” $65 billion in global defense trade for 2015 after examining trends worldwide across 65 countries based on 40,000 programs in the firm’s Aerospace, Defense & Security’s markets forecast database.

IHS said Monday the Global Defense Trade Report noted the Middle East as the largest importing region with an approximate $21.6 billion in defense equipment deliveries.

“The global defense trade market has never seen an increase as large as the one we saw between 2014 and 2015,” said Ben Moores, IHS senior analyst.

The study covered production, research and development, logistic support and service revenues with exports.

IHS forecasts France to overtake Russia as the second-largest global defense equipment exporter in 2018 after the top-ranked U.S.

Australia, Egypt and South Korea enter IHS’ top five weapons exporters to replace Taiwan, China and Indonesia.