Folks around the world should not be stumped by SIPRI’s fieriest data which bares that the sales of top-100 arms producing and military services providing conglomerates (excluding China) soared by 2.5% to $398.2 billion in 2017.
The massive spending on arms is essentially the value that is a part of the larger national arms procurement plans of several countries to support their native arms industry, in the name of modernizing their armed forces.
Ironically, either the state-controlled and arms manufacturers-influenced media represents it as arms exports or international arms sales to mask the massive arms spending, which is fueled by overseas military operations such as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
According to the independent think tank on global arms transfers, the arms sales worldwide totaled $376.2 billion and $372.4 billion in 2016 and 2015 respectively. The arms sales peaked to $420.4 billion in 2010.
Courting back to US Congressional Research Service (CSR) December 2016’s report (p. 66) on arms transfers, the global arms deliveries equaled $46.2 billion in 2015 – just a fraction of $372.4 billion (2015) of arms sale worldwide.
The United States ($16.9bn); Russia ($7.2bn), France ($7.0bn), and China ($2.9bn) were the largest arms suppliers to the world in 2015, the CRS report noted. SIPRI’s third-largest arms producer, the United Kingdom, could export just $1.3bn of arms.
Based on SIPRI global arms sales and CSR global arms deliveries in 2015, there is a substantial difference of $326.2bn – echoing the fact that these arms were procured from domestic arms suppliers to spur international and regional conflicts.
Furthermore, SIPRI global arms production statistics mirrors that countries such as – the United States, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and India – have increased their spending on domestic arms procurement to support native arms industry.
Subsequently, the domestic arms companies of these countries have to be the inevitable winners in this deadly arms race – a regimen set by the United States and was followed by the rest in succeeding years.
SIPRI said that the arms sales of 42-US companies totaled $226.6 billion or 57% of the aggregate top-100 arms sales, implying that the US continues to spend more on arms procurement from its domestic arms manufacturers to seek global supremacy.
While the United States’ annual arms exports, at $16.9 billion, is only a fraction of its annual arms production – about 355.5 billion was empathetically spent on procuring arms and military services from US-based companies in 2015.
Lockheed Martin ($44.9bn); Boeing ($26.9bn), and Raytheon ($23.9bn) were the largest cash recipients of the US arms purchases in 2017. As much as, five US companies made to top-10 and eight to top-15 to SIPRI’s largest arms producers.
This year, Russian arms suppliers dethroned the counterparts from the United Kingdom to claim the second slot in the listing – producing $37.7 billion in arms sales behind the United States, accounting for 9.5% of global arms sales.
But again, CSR says that Russian worldwide arms deliveries amounted to $7.2 billion in 2015 against SIPRI’s Russian arms production of $33.5 billion for the same year – the remainder $26.3 billion was procured to counter the US global dominance.
A total of 10 Russian companies made to the SIPRI top-100. Just as the US, Russian arms suppliers also greatly fruited from the Kremlin’s increased outlay on arms ordering to modernize its armed forces, SIPRI senior researcher confirmed.
Almaz-Antey ($8.6bn), United Aircraft Corporation ($6.4bn), and United Shipbuilding Corporation ($5.0bn) have been ranked 10th, 14th, and 15th respectively in global arms production listing for 2017 by SIPRI.
Four Indian arms manufacturing companies are also included in top-100, with total arms sales of $7.5 billion – Indian Ordinance Factories ($2.7bn), Hindustan Aeronautics (2.6bn), Bharat Electronics ($1.4bn); and Bharat Dynamics ($880mn).
Although Indian media has been rejoicing India’s inclusion in top-100 but the fact remains that it historically has a very poor record in arms exports. To date, India has exported only small military articles such as light weapons, army uniforms, trucks etc.
Indian arms exports have still been hovering around only $400 million while it needs to import most of the components for its arms exports. The BrahMos Indian missile is made up of 65% imported components.
Last year, Indian army rejected an Indian-made riffle for a second consecutive year, after it failed the quality tests. Other Indian-made defense equipment like Arjun tanks, light combat aircrafts, and even bullet-proof jackets are inferior enough to castoff.
Nevertheless, India was the largest importer of major arms in 2013-17, accounting for 12% of global arms imports. Its arms imports had increased by 24% between 2008-12 and 2013-17, according to SIPRI.
Consequently, whether it is arms production or arms trade – it could be manifested that every year, about $400 billion of arms are bombed to kill millions by breeding conflicts and wars for global military and economic hegemony.
And South Asia, Middle East, and parts of Africa are the heart of this dirty game of the transnational powers, with the help of some regional allies – ensuring a peaceful West and an invariably destabilized East.