The global gross income from arms sales of the 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies in the world excluding China was $420 billion in 2018, an increase of 4.6 per cent compared with 2017. This annual total using a constant 2018 dollar was 47 per cent higher than in 2002. The growth from 2017 to 2018 occurred mainly in sales by the top five U.S. companies, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says, "can be correlated to increases in global military expenditure, particularly the rise in U.S. spending from 2017 to 2018."
Seventy companies based in the USA and Europe accounted for 83 per cent of total Top 100 arms sales. At $348 billion in 2018, their combined arms sales were 5.2 per cent higher than in 2017 with most of the growth in U.S. companies. Arms sales of companies based in Europe in the Top 100 totalled $102 billion in 2018 with some of that production in the United States. For example, the arms sales of the USA-based subsidiary of BAE Systems were approximately $10 billion in 2018, equivalent to a 48 per cent share of BAE Systems' total arms sales of $21.2 billion.
Ten companies in Russia were listed in the Top 100 with combined gross income of $36.2 billion. SIPRI reports that while this figure remained largely unchanged from 2017, their share of total Top 100 arms sales dropped from 9.7 per cent to 8.6 per cent in 2018 because of "the substantial growth in the combined arms sales of U.S. and European companies."
Russia's largest arms producer, Almaz-Antey, was the only Russian company ranked in the top 10 (at 9th position) and accounted for 27 per cent of the total arms sales of Russian companies in the Top 100. Almaz-Antey's arms sales rose by 18 per cent in 2018, to $9.6 billion "due not only to strong domestic demand, but also to continued growth in sales to other countries, particularly of the S-400 air defence system," writes SIPRI researcher Alexandra Kuimova.
Twenty Top 100 companies are found outside the U.S., Europe and Russia with six based in Japan, three each in Israel, India and the Republic of Korea (south Korea), two in Turkey and one each in Singapore, Australia and Canada (CAE Inc. at 87th position with $1.01 billion in arms sales, a one year growth of 19 per cent).
The six Japanese companies had a combined gross income from the sale of arms of $9.9 billion accounting for 2.4 per cent of the Top 100 total.
The three Israeli companies' arms sales of $8.7 billion accounted for 2.1 per cent of the Top 100 total.
The combined arms sales of the three Indian arms companies listed in the Top 100 were $5.9 billion in 2018.
The three companies based in south Korea had combined arms sales of $5.2 billion in 2018, equivalent to 1.2 per cent of the Top 100 total.
Arms sales by the two Turkish companies listed in the Top 100 increased by 22 per cent in 2018, to $2.8 billion. SIPRI writes, "Turkey aims to develop and modernize its arms industry and Turkish companies continued to benefit from these (December 21, 2019 - No. 32) efforts in 2018."
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