A new report shows military spending around the world rose by nearly 10 billion US dollars last year. London-based I-H-S, a global information company which publishes Jane's Defense Weekly, cites growing instability in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions for the increase. And it notes the biggest share of the profits are from sales in the US.
For years, the US has been a leading global supplier of military hardware. Not just weapons and tanks. But fighter jets like these, which sell for 200 million dollars, each. Those sales have yielded major profits for a booming defense industry profits that have surged in recent years. According to a new study by I-H-S, a British-based defense consulting service, global defense trade - the buying and selling of military equipment -reached nearly 65 billion dollars in 2014 a 13 percent jump from the year before.
And much of the profit has been coming to the US. Of the top five suppliers in the world, the report says, three are based here.
But with US domestic defense spending shrinking in recent years, foreign clients are making up the difference and more. Russia set a record for defense exports in 2014. Saudi Arabia last year overtook India as the world's biggest purchaser of military hardware and became the US's biggest client.
Regional insecurity may be creating new market opportunities, opportunities that aren't going away any time soon. These regional actors are already preparing: budgeting for acquisition. Over the next decade, the report says, five of the 10 biggest spenders will be from the Middle East.
American defense firms say they are ready to meet the growing demand. But some critics wonder if these companies may be profiting a little too much for the continuing conflicts, or perhaps even encouraging them.