Jump to content

Arms industry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 93.41.161.246 (talk) at 23:23, 18 July 2011 (→World's largest defense budgets). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Workers assemble pistols at the John Inglis munitions plant, Canada, April 1944

The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities. Arms producing companies, also referred to as defence companies or military industry, produce arms mainly for the armed forces of states. Departments of government also operate in the arms industry, buying and selling weapons, munitions and other military items. Products include guns, ammunition, missiles, military aircraft, military vehicles, ships, electronic systems, and more. The arms industry also conducts significant research and development.

It is estimated that yearly, over 1.5 trillion dollars are spent on military expenditures worldwide (2.7% of World GDP).[1] Part of this goes to the procurement of military hardware and services from the military industry. The combined arms sales of the top 100 largest arms producing companies amounted to an estimated $315 billion in 2006.[2] In 2004 over $30 billion were spent in the international arms trade (a figure that excludes domestic sales of arms).[3] The arms trade has also been one of the sectors impacted by the credit crunch, with total deal value in the market halving from US$32.9bn to US$14.3bn in 2008.[4] Many industrialized countries have a domestic arms industry to supply their own military forces. Some countries also have a substantial legal or illegal domestic trade in weapons for use by its citizens. An illegal trade in small arms is prevalent in many countries and regions affected by political instability.

Contracts to supply a given country's military are awarded by the government, making arms contracts of substantial political importance. The link between politics and the arms trade can result in the development of what US President Dwight D. Eisenhower described as a military-industrial-congressional complex, where the armed forces, commerce, and politics become closely linked. The European defence procurement is more or less analogous to the U.S. military-industrial complex. Various corporations, some publicly held, others private, bid for these contracts, which are often worth many billions of dollars. Sometimes, such as the contract for the new Joint Strike Fighter, a competitive tendering process takes place, where the decision is made on the merits of the design submitted by the companies involved. Other times, no bidding or competition takes place.

In the Cold War Era, arms exports were used by both the Soviet Union and the United States to influence their standings in other countries, particularly Third World Countries. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, global arms exports initially fell slightly, but have since 2003 grown again, and now come close to Cold War levels.[5]

Unimog truck at IDEF in 2007.

Sectors

The AK series of weapons have been produced in greater numbers than any other firearm and have been used in conflicts all over the world.

Land-based weapons

This category includes everything from light arms to heavy artillery, and the majority of producers are small. Many are located in Third World countries. International trade in handguns, machine guns, tanks, armored personnel carriers and other relatively inexpensive weapons is substantial. There is relatively little regulation at the international level, and as a result, many weapons fall into the hands of rebel forces, terrorists, or regimes under sanctions.[6]

Small arms

The Control Arms Campaign, founded by Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the International Action Network on Small Arms, estimated in 2003 that there are over 639 million small arms in circulation, and that over 1,135 companies based in more than 98 different countries manufacture small arms as well as their various components and ammunition.[7]

Aerospace systems

A T-45 Goshawk on the assembly line at the McDonnell Douglas.
Main article: Aerospace manufacturer

Encompassing military aircraft (both land-based and naval aviation), conventional missiles, and military satellites, this is the most technologically advanced sector of the market. It is also the least competitive from an economic standpoint, with a handful of companies dominating the entire market. The top clients and major producers are virtually all located in the western world, with the United States easily in first place. Prominent aerospace firms include Dassault Aviation, Sukhoi, EADS, Finmeccanica, Thales Group, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Europe's BAE Systems. There are also several multinational consortia mostly involved in the manufacturing of fighter jets, such as the Eurofighter. The largest military contract in history, signed in October 2001, involved the development of the Joint Strike Fighter.[6]

File:F-247 TCG Kemal Reis.jpg
Naval systems includes all types of ships like aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers and frigates.

All of the world's major powers maintain substantial maritime forces to provide a global presence, with the largest nations possessing aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and advanced anti-air defense systems. The vast majority of military ships are conventionally powered, but some are nuclear-powered. There is also a large global market in second-hand naval vessels, generally purchased by developing countries from Western governments.[6]

World's largest defense budgets

This is a list of the ten countries with the highest defence budgets for the year 2010, which is $1.22 trillion or 76% of total world expenditures. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.[8][9] Total world spending amounted to $1.63 trillion USD in 2010.

Rank Country Spending ($ b.) World Share (%) % of GDP, 2010
— World Total 1630 100 —
1  United States 698.0 42.8 4.8
2  China 119.0a 7.3a 2.1
3  United Kingdom 59.6 3.7 2.7
4  France 59.3 3.6 2.3
5  Russia 58.7a 3.6a 4.0
6  Japan 54.5 3.3 1.0
7  Germany 45.2 2.8 1.3
8  Saudi Arabia 45.2 2.8 10.4
9  India 41.3 2.5 2.7
10  Italy 36.0 1.8 1.7
^a SIPRI estimate

World's largest arms exporters

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2000-2009 values. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.[10]

2001-10 Rank Supplier 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1  United States 5908 5229 5698 6866 6700 7453 8003 6288 6658 8641
2  Russia 5896 5705 5236 6178 5134 5095 5426 5953 5575 6039
3  Germany 850 916 1713 1105 2080 2567 3194 2500 2432 2340
4  France 1297 1368 1345 2219 1724 1643 2432 1994 1865 834
5  United Kingdom 1368 1068 741 1316 1039 855 1018 982 1022 1054
6  China 499 509 665 292 303 597 430 586 1000 1423
7  Netherlands 203 239 342 209 583 1187 1326 530 545 503
8  Sweden 880 191 526 314 538 432 366 454 383 806
9  Italy 216 426 341 212 774 502 684 417 514 627
10  Israel 407 436 368 628 368 299 438 281 807 472
11  Ukraine 700 311 442 200 290 553 728 330 320 201
12  Spain 7 120 150 56 108 843 590 610 998 513
13  Switzerland 193 157 181 243 246 285 301 482 255 137
14  Canada 129 170 263 265 226 226 334 227 169 258
15  South Korea 165 N/A 100 29 48 94 220 80 163 95

The information is also from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute or from the national defence commissions where available and is updated at least once a year.

Sgraffito at the Lambert Sevart weapons factory , in Liege (Belgium) (early XXth Century).

Next to SIPRI there are several other sources that provide data on international transfers of arms. These include national reports by national governments about arms exports, the UN register on conventional arms and an annual publication by the US Congressional Research Service that includes data on arms exports to developing countries as compiled by US intelligence agencies. A list of such sources can be found at the SIPRI website. [1] Due to the different methodologies and definitions used different sources often provide significantly different data. For example, according to Statistisk sentralbyrå (Norway state statistics), Norway exports a greater value (in USD) of arms than many of the nations listed above.

Some of the differences are possibly due to deliberate over- or under-reporting by some of the sources. Governments may claim high arms exports as part of their role in marketing efforts of their national arms industry or they may claim low arms exports in order to be perceived as a responsible international actor.

As of 2008 Britain has become the worlds leading developer of arms with British company BAE Systems.[2] Defence group BAE Systems is the first company outside the U.S. to reach the top position,thanks to a deal with the Pentagon for mine-resistant vehicles to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a defence think tank, the former British Aerospace group's arms sales are ahead of American market leaders Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The report reveals BAE's U.S. subsidiary was alone responsible for 61.5 per cent of the group's arms sales and around 58.5 per cent of total group sales. This demonstrates BAE's increasing reliance on orders for conventional weapons as the U.S. cuts back on its nuclear arsenal. The British figures were also boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia.

World's largest arms importers

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid.

Current Rank Importer 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1  India 911 1242 1872 2802 2227 1036 1257 2179 1810 2116 3337
2  Singapore 622 220 235 88 384 543 52 368 1123 1729 1078
3  Malaysia 30 26 131 135 48 51 410 546 541 1494 411
4  Greece 710 725 491 2241 1528 389 598 1796 563 1269 703
5  South Korea 1262 623 461 680 986 686 1650 1758 1821 1172 1131
6  Pakistan 158 397 533 592 385 332 262 613 939 1146 493
7  Algeria 418 553 237 197 272 156 308 471 1518 942 791
8  United States 301 449 453 533 512 501 581 731 808 831 893
9  Australia 364 1191 647 798 505 470 682 629 380 757 1677
10  Turkey 1170 553 1009 438 187 1005 422 585 578 675 468
11  Saudi Arabia 80 59 555 159 1161 148 185 64 115 626 787
12  United Arab Emirates 243 186 213 695 1246 2198 2026 938 748 604 493
13  People's Republic of China 2015 3366 2819 2207 3080 3511 3831 1474 1481 595 559
14  Norway 263 148 92 4 6 14 469 494 536 576 205
15  Indonesia 171 27 63 398 82 31 58 577 241 452 198

List of major weapon manufacturers

For a complete list, see List of modern armament manufacturers.
For a Top-Ten list, see Defense contractor.

Private military contractors are private companies that provide logistics, manpower, and other expenditures for a military force.

Major arms industry corporations by nation

For a complete list, see Major arms industry corporations by nation.

International treaties for arms control

  • The Arms Trade Treaty is the name of a potential multilateral treaty that would control the international trade of conventional weapons. The treaty is in the preliminary stages of development and has not yet been officially negotiated.
  • The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal and voluntary partnership between 34 countries to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying a 500 kg payload at least 300 km.
  • The Limitation of Naval Armament included many separate treaties. In general, the treaties involved the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and France.
  • The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits the use of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area.
  • The Outer Space Treaty, formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law.
  • The Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, completely bans all anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines).
  • The New START Treaty (for STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty) (Russian: СНВ-III) is a bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation that was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010.
  • The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons. It was signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925 and entered into force on February 8, 1928. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on September 7, 1929.
  State parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention
  State parties which have declared stockpiles of chemical weapons and/or are known to have chemical weapons production facilities
  • The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.
  • The Biological Weapons Convention (or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention) was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons. It was the result of prolonged efforts by the international community to establish a new instrument that would supplement the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

The European Council stated to the United Nations General Assembly:

We are committed to upholding, implementing and further strengthening the multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation framework in the fight against threats which are tending to escape the control of national sovereignty, the challenges deriving from destabilising accumulation and spread of small arms and light weapons, from illicit or irresponsible arms trade, and from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which are creating new and growing hot-spots of international tension. In this regard, the EU welcomes the growing support in all parts of the world for an International Arms Trade Treaty and is firmly committed to this process.[11]

Institutes participating in weapon research and warfare simulation

Ethical issues

For some people[who?], arms exports pose an ethical challenge, as they see supplying the weapons for a conflict as morally akin to becoming involved within the conflict and oppose the support for non-democratic oppressing regimes. Some[who?] view the arms industry as a means of profiting from war, repression and death when failure to supply arms could lead to an early disengagement.

On the other hand, exporting arms to groups (or states) with "laudable" goals—e.g. a rebel group overthrowing a fascist regime—can be an invaluable equalizer in the conflict.[citation needed] And there is no shortage of parties to a conflict that can wreak incalculable destruction without the assistance of modern armaments—for instance, the Hutus of the Rwandan Genocide conducted most of their carnage using simple machetes and other low-tech implements.[citation needed]

Oscar Arias Sanchez President of Costa Rica (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars across Central America through the Esquipulas II Accords) has stated:

When a country decides to invest in arms, rather than in education, housing, the environment, and health services for its people, it is depriving a whole generation of its right to prosperity and happiness. We have produced one firearm for every ten inhabitants of this planet, and yet we have not bothered to end hunger when such a feat is well within our reach. Our international regulations allow almost three-quarters of all global arms sales to pour into the developing world with no binding international guidelines whatsoever. Our regulations do not hold countries accountable for what is done with the weapons they sell, even when the probable use of such weapons is obvious.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ www.globalissues.org
  2. ^ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
  3. ^ BBC
  4. ^ Defence sector deal-making is finding itself in a war zone, warns report. 12 March 2009. BriskFox
  5. ^ www.sipri.org
  6. ^ a b c www.fpa.org
  7. ^ Debbie Hillier, Brian Wood (2003). "Shattered Lives - the case for tough international arms control" (PDF). Control Arms Campaign. p. 19. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  8. ^ Stockholm International Peace Research Inst.- Military expenditure database
  9. ^ The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2009
  10. ^ Top List TIV Tables-SIPRI
  11. ^ EU@UN - EU Presidency Statement - United Nations 62nd General Assembly: General Debate
  12. ^ Anonymous. The Global Arms Trade: Strengthening International Regulations. Interview with Oscar Arias Sanchez. Harvard International Review Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices/11664335-1.html accessed 10 Feb 2010
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military industries and wartime industrial production.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arms_industry&oldid=440211035"