Wars, ongoing conflicts and rising tensions have driven sales of arms and military services by the world’s 100 largest companies to $632bn in 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report.
This represents a 4.2% real-terms increase compared to 2022. Arms revenues rose across all regions, with significant growth observed among companies in Russia and the Middle East. Smaller producers were notably quicker to meet the increased demand driven by the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, escalating tensions in East Asia, and rearmament efforts in various regions.
SIPRI military expenditure and arms production programme researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato said: “There was a marked rise in arms revenues in 2023, and this is likely to continue in 2024. The arms revenues of the Top 100 arms producers still did not fully reflect the scale of demand, and many companies have launched recruitment drives, suggesting they are optimistic about future sales.”
In the US, 41 companies recorded arms revenues of $317bn, accounting for half of the total arms revenues. Although arms revenues for US companies have increased, they continue to face production challenges.
This was a 2.5% increase from 2022, despite companies such as Lockheed Martin and RTX experiencing a decline.
SIPRI military expenditure and arms production programme director Dr Nan Tian said: “Larger companies like Lockheed Martin and RTX manufacturing a wide range of arms products often depend on complex, multi-tiered supply chains, which made them vulnerable to lingering supply chain challenges in 2023. This was particularly the case in the aeronautics and missile sectors.”
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