Israel is one of the world's leading arms exporters
The SIPRI report monitors all published defense deals and considers a five-year period to include rolling deals, thus examining exports over time. The organization's database is considered reliable. This year's report found that in the past five years, all defense exports around the world rose 9.2% from the previous five years. European countries have more than tripled their defense spending, due to the war in Ukraine, and the continent is now the world's number one buyer of weapons and defense equipment.
Increase in US arms exports following Russian invasion of Ukraine
The US has increased its defense exports to Europe in the past five years by 217%, compared with the five years between 2016 and 2020. SIPRI includes Ukraine as part of Europe and explains that a large part of the increase in exports to the continent stems from the transfer of weapons to a country that has been fighting for the past four years against Russia, which invaded its country.
The US tops the SIPRI ranking and is responsible for 42% of global arms and ammunition exports in the last five years. In the five years before that, it was responsible for only 36%. For the first time in this period, most US arms were sold to Europe, and not the Middle East as previously. France is in second place with a share of 9.8% of global arms supplies. Russia is in third place, with smaller exports are due to international sanctions. Germany has moved to fourth place, overtaking China in fifth place. Italy is in sixth place, followed by Israel in seventh place. Israel recorded a 56% jump in its arms exports during the period examined (compared to the five years between 1996 and 2000), second only to the 157% jump in Italian arms exports.
The authors of the report note that Israel "captured" this position despite the multi-sector war in which it was involved. "Despite waging wars in Gaza and Iran, and attacks in Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and Yemen, Israel has still managed to increase its share of global arms exports," said SIPRI researcher Zain Hussein. "The Israeli arms industry focuses on air defense systems that have high international demand, while the Israeli military depends on imports for several key components." According to SIPRI, Israel's top three export destinations were India (29%), Germany (21%) and the US (7.8%).
Assaf Uni