Worldwide military spending on weapons hits record high
World arms expenditure totaled euro 1.1 trillion ($1.464) trillion last year, a rise of 45 per cent from a decade ago and representing £135 for every person on the planet. Compared with 2007, the figure rose by 4 per cent in real terms, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Western companies dominate the ranking, with 44 of them from the US and 32 from Western Europe. Since 1999, US defense spending has soared by 67 per cent in real terms to euro 400 billion ($607 billion). China, which like Russia has almost tripled its military expenditure in the past 10 years, was for the first time the world's second-biggest arms spender in 2008. SIPRI estimated its spending accounted for six per cent of the global total. That would put it ahead of France and Britain, which each accounted for 4.5 percent. "China's increase has roughly paralleled its economic growth and is also linked to its major power aspirations," SIPRI said. SIPRI said the companies that registered the sharpest increases were manufacturers of armored tanks, in strong demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as companies that subcontract their services to the military.
On top of the list of 100 biggest weapons manufacturers was the US company Boeing, ahead of Britain's BAE Systems and another US group Lockheed Martin.
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