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.
