The full-scale invasion of the aggressor country russia into Ukraine has allowed US defense companies to strengthen their dominance in the global arms market. US arms exports have increased by one-fifth over the past four years and now account for 43% of the global market.
This is reported by The Washington Post, citing a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
"The USA is in a unique position when it comes to arms exports. At 43 percent, its share of global arms exports is more than four times as much as the next-largest exporter, France," said Matthew George, director of the SIPRI arms transfer program.
The SIPRI study showed that military aid to Ukraine has been a boon for US arms manufacturers. Most of the US arms sent to Ukraine were received under the presidential drawdown authority or other program that uses funding to purchase weapons directly from US manufacturers.
SIPRI also analyzed the impact of US arms supplies to Israel, which were used by the Israeli army in the war in the Gaza Strip. They had little impact on the global arms trade.
George noted that if the value of US arms exports to Ukraine and Israel were excluded from the SIPRI study, the US share of global arms exports would still be 37% in the period from 2020 to 2024, making the country the world’s largest exporter.
The study also showed that arms exports from russia have fallen by 64% over the past five years. At the same time, the decline in russian arms sales began even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine: historical lows in export volumes were recorded in 2020 and 2021.
European countries overtook the Middle East in the number of deals to purchase American weapons between 2020 and 2024. Some of these orders remain unfulfilled, and in the next study their number will increase even more.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the day before it became known that India had signed a contract with russia worth almost USD 250 million for the supply of engines for Indian T-72 tanks.
We also wrote that in the three years since the start of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the value of shares in the German defense concern Rheinmetall has increased tenfold.
In addition, Rheinmetall decided to stop producing cars at two of its plants and refocus their activities on weapons production.
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