US is champ at weaponizing the world through 2014, increased sales by $10 billion to total $36 billion, Russia distant second at $10 billion. US bolstered by big sales to Islamic Kingdoms of Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as to South Korea. US to remain #1 supplier to third world countries-NY Times

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Dec. 25, 2015 article:

12/25/2015, "U.S. remains top supplier of weapons in the world," NY Times, Nicholas Fandos, Washington, via Seattle Times 

"The deals ensured that the U.S. remained the single largest provider of weapons worldwide last year (2014), controlling slightly more than 50 percent of the market."

"Foreign arms sales by the United States jumped by almost $10 billion in 2014, about 35 percent, even as the global weapons market remained flat and competition among suppliers increased, a new congressional study has found. 

U.S. weapons receipts rose to $36.2 billion in 2014 from $26.7 billion the year before, bolstered by multibillion-dollar agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Those deals and others ensured that the United States remained the single largest provider of weapons worldwide last year, controlling slightly more than 50 percent of the market.

Russia followed the United States as a top weapons supplier, completing $10.2 billion in sales, compared with $10.3 billion in 2013. Sweden was third, with roughly $5.5 billion in sales, followed by France with $4.4 billion and China with $2.2 billion.

South Korea, a key U.S. ally, was the world’s top weapons buyer in 2014, completing $7.8 billion in contracts. It has faced continued tensions with neighboring North Korea in recent years over the North’s nuclear-weapons program and other provocations. The bulk of South Korea’s purchases, worth more than $7 billion, were made with the United States and included transport helicopters and related support, and advanced unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles.

Iraq followed South Korea, with $7.3 billion in purchases intended to build up its military after the U.S. troop withdrawal there.

Brazil, another developing nation building its military force, was third, with $6.5 billion worth of purchase agreements, primarily for Swedish aircraft.

The report to Congress found that total global arms sales rose slightly in 2014 to $71.8 billion, from $70.1 billion in 2013. Despite that increase, the report concluded that “the international arms market is not likely growing overall,” because of “the weakened state of the global economy.”

It was the second successive year that global sales remained steady, suggesting that the market has begun to level off after several years of extreme fluctuation.

The lack of market expansion has led to greater competition among suppliers. Some arms producers have adopted measures such as flexible financing, countertrade guarantees and coproduction and co-assembly agreements to try to secure sales, according to the report.

“A number of weapons-exporting nations are focusing not only on the clients with which they have held historic competitive advantages due to well-established military-support relationships, but also on potential new clients in countries and regions where they have not been traditional arms suppliers,” the author of the report, Catherine Theohary, wrote.

Despite the competition, the report concluded that, given its positioning, the United States was likely to remain the dominant supplier of arms to developing nations in coming years.

The annual report by the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, was delivered to Congress this week and analyzes trends in arms sales between 2007 and 2014.

As in previous years, the vast majority of arms were supplied by large, established countries to developing ones, which made $61.8 billion in total purchases in 2014.

Several U.S. allies in the Middle East completed significant purchase agreements to strengthen their push to counter Iran. Saudi Arabia, which has been the single largest buyer of foreign arms in recent years, purchased $4.1 billion in anti-armor missiles and other weapons. Qatar purchased $2.7 billion in missile defenses and other weapons.

The report is considered among the most detailed nonclassified international arms-sales data available to the public. To ensure that information is comparable to 2014 dollars, the report adjusts figures from previous years for inflation."



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