Jane Edwards
A new Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report says military arms and services sales worldwide reached a total of $374.8 billion during 2016.
SIPRI said Monday the figure reflects a 1.9 percent increase from 2015 and represents the first year of growth in arms sales since 2010.
Sales of U.S. arms manufacturers rose by 4 percent to $217.2 billion in 2016 driven by international countries’ procurement of weapon systems and U.S. military operations abroad.
Lockheed Martin posted a 10.7 percent rise in 2016 arms sales associated with the high volume of F-35 fighter jet deliveries and the company’s acquisition of Sikorsky in 2015, said Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure program.
The report also cited Leidos‘ purchase of Lockheed’s information systems and global services business in 2016.
Weapons manufacturers in Western Europe logged $91.6 billion in total sales in 2016, a figure that represents a 0.2 percent rise from 2015 arms sales.
Germany and the U.K. respectively posted a 6.6 percent and 2 percent growth in arms sales last year.
The report noted that British defense contractor BAE Systems recorded a 0.4 percent increase in weapons sales.
South Korean arms producers saw a 20.6 percent rise in sales while Russian manufacturers experienced a sales growth of 3.8 percent in 2016.
The decline in arms sales by Japanese firms has resulted in a 1.2 percent drop in combined weapons sales of “other established producers†based in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Israel, Poland and Ukraine.
