Sales of arms and military services by the SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing companies totalled $410 billion in 2011 according to new data on international arms production released by SIPRI today (Press release available in English (online) and Catalan, French, Spanish and Swedish (PDF)).
Compared to 2010, this result represents a 5 per cent decrease in constant dollar terms. Over the period since 2002, arms sales by the Top 100 have nevertheless increased by 51 per cent in real terms.
Arms-producing and military services companies headquartered in North America and Western Europe continued to dominate the Top 100 list, which does not include China-based companies due to lack of available data. Sales by the 44 US-based arms producers amounted to 60 per cent of the total arms sales of the Top 100. The 30 companies based in Western Europe made up another 29 per cent of the total.
Read a summary of the chapter on arms production from the forthcoming SIPRI Yearbook, which includes a list of the top arms producing companies.