SIPRI Top 100 data launch in Munich

18 February 2014

Image: Sam Perlo-Freeman (left), Tilman Brück (centre) and Pieter Wezeman (right) at the Munich Security Conference.

Arms sales by the world's largest arms-producing and military services companies (the so-called SIPRI Top 100) fell again in 2012, according to a SIPRI press release issued on 31 January at the Munich Security Conference.

Sales of arms and military services by the SIPRI Top 100 totalled $395 billion in 2012. This result represents a 4.2 per cent decrease in real terms compared to the companies in the Top 100 for 2011 and follows a 6.6 per cent decrease in that year. Arms sales by the Top 100 have nevertheless increased by 29 per cent in real terms since 2003.

Russian companies saw a particularly large increase in estimated arms sales in 2012. Five of the six Russian companies in the Top 100 saw an increase of over 20 per cent.

‘The Russian arms industry is gradually re-emerging from the ruins of the Soviet industry’, said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, Director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. ‘Nonetheless, the industry is still plagued by outdated equipment, inefficient organization and widespread corruption, which will continue to limit Russia’s ability to compete technologically with the West.’

The press release is based on the newly updated SIPRI Arms Industry Database, which contains financial and employment data on arms producing companies worldwide. Since 1990, SIPRI has published data on the arms sales and employment of the 100 largest of these arms-producing companies in the SIPRI Yearbook.

Access the full SIPRI Top 100 list for 2012 or download the Fact Sheet. Find out more about recent trends in the arms industry.