German Radio, Combined arms sales from the world’s top 100 companies totaled 290 billion dollars for 2005. Some 40 of the largest exporters are based in the US, according to a Stockholm peace institute.
In its annual report on global military expenditures, the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI) said the US and Russia account for some 30 percent each of all world arms sales. European countries make up a good share of the rest of sales.
Of the importing countries, China and India were the largest, along with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In the report, SIPRI examined 100 top defense companies, 40 of which are based in the US and account for 63 percent of global arms sales. The 32 European companies included in the report had a 29-percent share while nine in Russia pulled in 2 percent of sales.
Here is a list of the 10 largest arms exporting countries in terms of billions of dollars in sales:
01. USA: 7.9
02 .Russia: 6.7
03. Germany: 3.9
04. France: 1.6
05. Britain: 1.1
06. Netherlands: 1.5
07. Italy: 0.9
08. China: 0.6
09. Sweden: 0.5
10. Israel: 0.2
In its report, SIPRI also included statistics on the number of armed conflicts, personnel deployed in peacekeeping operations (167,000 worldwide of which 19,000 were non-military), nuclear weapons, energy and security policy.
SIPRI was created by the Swedish parliament as an independent foundation in 1966 and has been publishing its yearbooks ever since.
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