A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed that arms sales worldwide hit $420B during 2018 and five U.S.-based companies dominated SIPRI’s latest ranking of the top 100 global military suppliers.
The figure represents a 4.6 percent increase over 2017 worlwide sales of military technology and a 47 percent jump since 2002, SIPRI said Monday.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) collectively accounted for 35 percent, or $148B, of the total arms sales last year.
Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure program, said he observed that key industry players in the U.S. look to consolidations as one way to build modern weapon systems and strengthen position in the government contracting sector.
Eighty of top military suppliers listed in the report operate their headquarters in the U.S., Russia or Europe, while the remaining producers were based in Japan, Israel, India, South Korea, Australia, Canada or Singapore.
