The sale of arms and services to the military sector increased in 2021, albeit affected by supply problems linked to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine that should amplify these difficulties and stimulate demand, according to a new report published on Monday.
According to the report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the 100 largest arms companies sold arms and services to the military sector for a total of 592,000 million dollars (about 562,000 million euros) in 2021, an increase of 1.9% compared to 2020.
Shortage of labor and supplies.
However, this growth was severely affected by widespread supply chain issues.
Problems related to labor shortages and the supply of raw materials have “slowed down the ability of companies to produce weapons systems and deliver them on time.”
“What we are really seeing is possibly slower than many expected growth in gun sales in 2021,” he said.
Decline in sales in the United States
Supply problems are expected to worsen with the war in Ukraine, particularly “because Russia is a major supplier of raw materials used in weapons production,” according to the report’s authors, but also because this conflict has led to an increase in demand.
However, it remains difficult to assess the level of this increase according to Nan Tian, which depends both on the need of the countries that have helped Ukraine with weapons to replenish their stocks and on the worsening security environment, which means that “countries seek to acquire more weapons”.
While US companies still dominate the global arms production market and account for more than half of global sales (or $299 billion), the US is the only region in the world to have seen a drop in sales compared to with 2020.
Among the five largest companies in the market (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics) only Raytheon saw its sales grow.
Source: BFM TV
