Tuesday, September 08, 2009
F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet dropping a GBU-28 bunker buster bomb
The United States is indeed No. 1…when it comes to selling weapons to developing nations and throughout the entire world. Despite a global recession that has put a crimp in worldwide arms sales, business is booming for U.S. weapons manufacturers, who sold $37.8 billion in military hardware in 2008 and controlled 68% of the international market. The dollar total represented a significant jump from 2007, when the U.S. sold $25.4 billion.
No. 2 in arms sales last year was Italy, with only $3.7 billion. Third was Russia, coming in at $3.5 billion (down from $10.8 billion in 2007).
While American military sales continued to grow, the arms trade overall dipped last year by 7.6%.
A big reason for the U.S. success is in the developing world, where almost $30 billion of all American sales were made in 2008. These included the United Arab Emirates buying a $6.5 billion air defense system, Morocco purchasing $2.1 billion in jet fighters, and Taiwan shelling out $2 billion for attack helicopters. Other countries that signed large weapons deals with the U.S. were India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea and Brazil.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows (by Thom Shanker, New York Times)
Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2001-2008 (by Richard F. Grimmett, Congressional Research Service)
U.S. Leads Boom in Arms Sales (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Comments