Global military spending set another record last year, and the rising trend has been going on for the ninth year in a row – MTI quoted the report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
According to the organization, in 2023, the military spending of countries swelled by 6.8 percent, or 2.44 trillion dollars, compared to the year 2022, when the world spent 2.24 trillion dollars on weapons. This was the largest increase in one year since 2009.
The world’s ten biggest military spenders all increased their spending significantly last year, and the war between Ukraine and Russia also contributed strongly to the rise in numbers.
SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato told the German news agency dpa: the increasing trend in military spending suggests that the countries of the world are feeling less and less secure and may be starting to prefer tougher security tools over diplomatic solutions.
The United States continued to spend the most on weapons: spending $916 billion accounted for more than a third – 37 percent – of global military spending last year.
China was in second place, with less than a third of US spending at $296 billion. This corresponds to 12 percent of global arms spending and shows a 6 percent increase compared to the year 2022.
Russia was also in third place last year, followed by India, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and then Germany. In Russia, military spending increased by 24 percent compared to last year and reached $109 billion in 2022.
Globally, 2.3 percent of the world’s GDP was spent on military spending last year. Among the top ten countries, the military budget increased the most in Ukraine: it increased by 51 percent to 64.8 billion dollars and accounted for 58 percent of the state budget. According to SIPRI’s calculations, Ukraine’s spending on armaments, together with the military aid received from Western countries, corresponded to approximately 91 percent of the Russian military budget.
Europe is on the decline: this is indicated by the fact that, according to 2022 data, there is no EU company among the ten largest military companies in the world, and the EU’s share of the sales of the hundred largest arms manufacturers is only 12.8 percent. Among the three big ones, the Italian Leonardo 12.5, Airbus 12, and the French Thales had a turnover of 9.5 billion dollars from military production, compared to the American Lockheed Martin 59, Raytheon (RTX) 39.5, the Russian Szotek 16 .8, or with the 20-22 billion values of the Chinese NORINCO, AVIC and CASC. Rheinmetall, with a revenue of 4.5 billion, or Saab, which sells for 3.7 billion, are playing in the second league at the international level, even though they are emerging from the European field.
