Russian arms sales skyrocket

Arms sales by Russian manufacturers have skyrocketed in the last two years, owing to large increases in Moscow's military spending, a Swedish think tank announced Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) announced that sales by Russian-based firms grew by 20 percent in 2013.

"The remarkable increases in Russian companies' arms sales in both 2012 and 2013 are in large part due to uninterrupted investments in military procurement by the Russian government during the 2000s," said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher at SIPRI.

"Lastly, and probably most important is that Russia's military budget is increasing. Russia is serious about modernizing its armed forces," Wezeman said.

The Russia-based Tactical Missiles Corporation registered the biggest jump in sales in 2013, with a 118 percent increase. It was followed by Almaz-Antey, which had a 34 percent increase.

Almay-Antey is now the 12th largest arms dealer in the world.

Since the end of the Cold War, the top 10 arms manufacturers in the world are all based in the west, according to the SIPRI.

Chinese companies were not included in the survey due to lack of data, but SIPRI said it was likely that nine companies in China could have made the top 100 arms sellers list.

Western firms still dominate

Arms dealers in the US and Western Europe continued to dominate global arms sales in 2013. Of the top 100 defense firms listed, 38 were based in the United States, and 30 in Western Europe, accounting for nearly 85 percent of global arms sales in 2013.

US firm Lockheed Martin topped the list, followed by fellow American firm Boeing.
Total sales by the world's top 100 arms dealers totaled $402 billion (322 billion euros.)

bw/cmk (dpa, AFP)