Jeff
Desjardins, Visual Capitalist
Visual Capitalist
The above
visualization sums up the global weapons trade during the Obama era, minus data
from 2016. It was created by data scientist Hai Nguyen Mau, and each
relationship plots the value of the weapons trade between two countries based
on data from SIPRI.
It’s
important to note that while this data includes major weaponry transfers such
as tanks, jets, missiles, and ships, it excludes guns and ammunition or
military aid. Lastly, the thickness of each line represents the total value of
each trade relationship, while the proximity of two linked countries shows how
close each relationship is. (i.e. if a country only imports from Russia, they
will be much closer to Russia than the U.S.)
A LONGTAIL
DISTRIBUTION
The global
weapons trade is dominated by a few major exporters, such as United States, EU,
and Russia:
Visual Capitalist
Together, the
United States, European Union, and Russia combine for over 80% of weapons
exports, while the rest of the world fills out the “longtail” of the exporter
distribution.
From the
perspective of imports, the field is much more equal because almost every
country aims to spend at least some money on defense. India is the largest
importer of weapons in the world with a 14% share of the market.
TWO DISTINCT
BLOCS
The picture
behind the global weapons trade gets much more interesting as it is broken up
into relationships. It’s easy to see that there are two distinct blocs of
trade:
The West:
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, most of the EU, and other countries
The East:
Russia, China, India, Nigeria, and other countries
As an
example, Singapore imports 71% of its weapons from the United States along with
significant amounts from Germany (10%) and Sweden (6%). As such, it is very
close to the United States in these visualizations.
Meanwhile,
India imports 70% of its arms from Russia, with the U.S. (12%) and Israel (7%)
as other major partners.
Here’s
another look from Hai Nguyen Mau that just focuses on U.S. and Russian
relationships:
Visual Capitalist
An
oversimplication, to be sure – but these visualizations hint at the broader
tensions that have recently surfaced to the forefront of geopolitical
discourse.
Read the
original article on Visual Capitalist. Get rich, visual content on business and
investing for free at the Visual Capitalist website, or follow Visual
Capitalist on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn for the latest. Copyright 2017.
Follow Visual Capitalist on Twitter.
****-END-****
US and Russia
benefit as global arms race picks up
By Ben Aris
in Moscow June 14, 2016
After two
decades of relative peace, a new arms race is getting underway, fuelled by
rising exports of weapons by Russia and the US headed largely for Southeast
Asia and the Middle East. Countries bought a record breaking $65bn of arms in
2015 and will spend even more in 2016, according to the annual "Global
Defence Trade Report" released on June 13 by IHS Jane's.
"The
global defence trade market has never seen an increase as large as the one we
saw between 2014 and 2015," said Ben Moores, senior analyst at IHS Jane's.
"2015 was a record-breaking year." Markets rose $6.6bn, bringing the
value of the global defence market in 2015 to $65bn. Jane's forecasts that the market will
increase further to $69bn in 2016.
Arms is big
business and the trade is being fuelled by the Ukraine conflict in Europe,
civil war and terrorism in the Middle East, and a feared conflict-to-come in
the South China Sea of Asia. Spending in Southeast Asia soared, with several
countries in the region ramping up their defence spending.
The US
continues to be out on its own in the exporter ranking with $22.9bn worth of
arms sold in 2015, followed by Russia in second place with $7.4bn in 2015. Both
countries are expected to increase their exports to $24.4bn and $7.7bn in 2016,
according to Jane's. Russian defence industry officials previously cited a
sales figure twice as great, apparently citing some contracts still in
progress.
Tensions
behind the spike in sales are unlikely to subside in the near term. Following
Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its use of Russian soldiers to
destabilise the Donbas, Nato has responded with plans for a rapid reaction
force along the EU border with Russia. Poland and the Baltic states also opened
talks in June on building up better joint air defences to stymie a potential
Russian attack; as recent studies have shown, Nato would be incapable of
stopping a rapid Russian invasion of the Baltics if it came to war.
On the other
side of border Russia has been beefing up its military presence in its European
theatre, although a mooted Russian airbase in Belarus that would house Russia's
most advanced fifth generation Sukhoi F35 fighters has just been put on ice.
Russian
objections to Nato's expansion eastwards were stoked again in May when the
first phase of the long discussed European missile shield went online with a
new base in Romania. Another is due to open soon in Poland. While nominally
there to protect Europe from missile attacks by rogue nations in the Middle
East, the bases could also give the Western alliance the capability of shooting
down Russian nuclear missiles, weakening Moscow's retaliatory capability and
thus making a nuclear offensive more conceivable. Russian worries about Nato's intentions go back
to former US president George W. Bush's decision to unilaterally withdraw from
the ABS missile treaty in 2002, scuppering a key element in the security
arrangements to ensure a limit on arms in Europe.
If that were
not enough to unsettle the Kremlin, both sides have been engaging in
large-scale sabre rattling. Russia has run a series of massive military
exercises over the last two years and Nato is responding this summer with its
own. Poland is about to host the largest multinational military exercises on
its territory in more than a decade. The Anakonda-16 exercises, involving
25,000 troops from more than 20 countries, are intended to showcase Nato unity
a month ahead of the alliance's summit in Warsaw in July. The US Army recently
drove tanks through the Moldovan capital Chisinau in a show of strength and
will play a key role in the Anakonda-16 war games, sending tanks and soldiers
from its bases in Germany in a simulated mission to rescue the Baltic states
from a Russian attack.
Quite apart
from the rising military tensions, the defence industry is a good business for
many European countries. After the US and Russia, arms exports are also
important for Germany ($4.8bn in 2015, $4.8bn in 2016), France ($4.8bn, $6bn)
and the UK ($3.9bn, $4.3bn), with France showing the fastest growth and
expected to knock Russia out of the number two biggest exporter slot in 2016.
"France has doubled its backlog of orders from $36bn in 2014 to $55bn,
meaning that $55bn worth of defence equipment has yet to be exported. This
increase means that France will overtake Russia as the second-largest global
defence equipment exporter," Jane's
said in its report.
Arming the
Middle East
All these
weapons are not only destabilising Europe, but the effect is probably even
worse in the Middle East, a traditional hub of Russian arms sales which is
rising up the rankings of importers and will only be encouraged following
Russia's short but effective campaign in Syria launched last autumn. Russia
will sell $14bn worth of arms in 2016, the head of the Federal Service of
Military and Technical Cooperation Alexander Fomin said on May 18, calling the
military operations in Syria "good advertising" for the country's
military hardware.
The ranking
table of importers is led by Saudi Arabia ($9.3bn in 2015, $10.1bn in 2016) and
India ($4.3bn, $3.9bn) but the United Arab Emirates is the fastest climber,
moving up from eighth place in 2015 ($2.1bn) to an expected third place in 2016
($3.1bn), and increasing its spending by a third.
The Middle
East was the largest importing region, with $21.6bn in deliveries of defence
equipment in 2015, Jane's reports. Saudi Arabia and the UAE imported $11.4bn
(17.5% of the global total) worth of defence systems in 2015, up from $8.6bn in
2014.
"The
combined value of Saudi Arabia and the UAE's defence imports is more than all
of Western Europe's defence imports combined," Moores said. Saudi Arabia's
imports grew from $6bn to $9.3bn, an increase that is three times that of the
entire sub-Saharan Africa market. "The US, Canada, France and the UK are
the main exporters of defence equipment to the Middle East and beneficiaries of
this spending boom," Moores said.
All in all,
Jane's estimates that the biggest opportunities for arms dealers in the decade
will be found in Saudi Arabia, which it expects to spend $36bn on arms,
followed by India ($25bn), UAE ($14bn), Indonesia ($13bn) and Vietnam ($10bn).
Perhaps even
more worrying is the heavy spending by countries that could be drawn into a
potential major future conflict in Asia. Total defence spending accelerated in
the Asia-Pacific region bordering the South China Sea, up a huge 71% between
2009 and 2015, Jane's reports.
Tensions are
already high between China and Japan thanks to a territorial dispute over the
Senkaku Islands, as they are known in Japan, or the Diaoyu Islands as they are
known in China. Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador after a Chinese navy ship
sailed close to what Japan considers its territorial waters in the East China
Sea for the first time on June 9, increasing tensions over the disputed area.
And, unsurprisingly, Taiwan appears as a top 10 importer of arms in 2015
($1.5bn) and is expected to increase its spending in 2016 to $2bn, making it
the seventh heaviest spender on weapons in the world, according to Jane's.
Ten Largest
Weapon Exporting Countries in the World
Posted by
Amir
The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is the organization that keeps
record of total manufacturing of weapons worldwide and their total export and
import figures. The data from worldwide is kept there from where the rankings
in arms exporting countries are concluded annually. As per report, the volume
of transfers of major weapons in 2011–15 was 14 per cent higher than in
2006–10. Moscow and Washington continue to lead the way in exporting the
largest amount of weapons to the world. Russia and the U.S. remained the
largest exporter of major weapons with highest share of global arms exports of
33 percent and 25 percent respectively.
USA is
undoubtedly a dominant country in arms industry which surpassed all the others
in its total exports worldwide. It is being reported that around 1.5 trillion
US$ are spent every year on its manufacturing around the world with USA been on
top in total manufacturing. The country outraced all other arms supplier by a
significant margin and delivered major weapons to at least 96 states in the
past five years while its largest recipients were Saudi Arabia, accounting for
9.7 percent of U.S. arms exports, and the UAE with 9.1 percent. Furthermore,
this country has got significantly higher number of clients than any other
supplier and its arms industry has large outstanding export orders, including
for a total of 611 F-35 combat aircraft to 9 states. Its major weapons exports
increased by 27 percent between 2006–10 and 2011–15.
With global
export share of 25 percent, Russia remained the second largest arms
exporting country and got major client
India received 39 percent while China and Vietnam each received 11 percent. It
delivers weapons to 50 states and major weapons exports increased by 28 percent
between 2006–10 and 2011–15.
Chinese
exports of major arms were just above those of France in 2011–15, growing by
88 per cent compared to 2006–10.
French exports decreased by 9.8 per cent and German exports halved over the
same period.
From the
recent rankings issued by SIPRI in feb 2016, the countries with top arms
exports in the world are listed below along with their statistics. The ten
largest exporters of major weapons with their main clients, 2011–15.
