Largest Arms Manufacturers Around the World

Biggest arms sellers countries (Click to expand)

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In 2014, the sales of the 100 largest military manufacturers – arms, vehicles and services – summed US$401 billion. Think fast: which country is the biggest seller of weapons around the world? You don’t need to answer right now: we will discover it shortly in our numbers.

Changing the chairs

The western companies are losing ground to companies based on emergent countries. The share of companies from United States among the 100 largest arms sellers decreased 4.1% between 2013 and 2014, to 54,4%. Western European companies share decreased 7,4% in the same period.

Meanwhile, Russian companies now represent 10.2% of the share among the 100 largest arms manufacturers, with a combined revenue growth of 48.4% between 2013 and 2014. Brazil, South Korea, India and Turkey are others countries whose arms sales are increasing, with total revenues rising 5.1% between 2013 and 2014, counting for 3.7% the top 100 military sellers.

But this is a market that may be shrinking. Total sales for 2013 summed US$402 billion, which indicates a stagnation between 2013 and 2014. A survey by McKinsey indicates that executives of aerospace and defense companies expect the market to shrink in the short term, with revenue declining in the west and growing in markets like India, Brazil and Middle East.

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Current big players

While the market is still big, western countries still dominate the ranking of top sellers of arms, with its companies ranking high. Remember we said you would discover which country is the biggest seller of arms and military services? Look at the graphics below to discover.

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Below we look at the main aerospacial and defense companies of the top 8 largest arms sellers countries. Most of these companies also manufacture civilian machinery, like airplanes, tractors, etc. Where’s China in this list?  There’s no reliable data for Chinese defense companies about arms selling, so we decided to exclude these numbers of our article.

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8. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan)