Sipri report: That's how much money the hundred largest arms companies earn

Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet

Photo: AP / USAF

531 billion dollars from the sale of weapons and military services - that is the turnover of the hundred largest arms companies in 2020.

This emerges from new data that the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research Sipri has now published.

The researchers recorded an increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year.

According to the institute, the business of the arms companies grew for the sixth time in a row.

In the past year, the companies had implemented almost a fifth more than in 2015: the year in which Sipri included Chinese companies in its report for the first time.

Growth despite Corona

The authors base their evaluation on publicly available data.

This includes annual reports from companies as well as articles in trade magazines and the media.

Arms sales estimates are also based on publicly available information.

The global economy shrank by a good three percent in 2020 due to Corona.

The pandemic also hit the arms companies.

Some of them complained of supply chain disruptions and late deliveries.

Overall, however, Corona was apparently unable to harm the business.

"The industry giants were largely protected by the ongoing government demand for military goods and services," says Alexandra Marksteiner, one of the authors of the Sipri report.

Military spending has increased in many countries.

Some governments have even increased payments to the defense industry to mitigate the effects of the corona crisis, says Marksteiner.

US companies way ahead, followed by the Chinese

41 of the 100 largest arms companies come from the USA.

Together they made around $ 285 million in arms sales.

That is 1.9 percent more than in 2019 - and more than half of the total turnover of all companies in the top 100. US corporations are thus still well ahead of the competition from other countries.

The top-selling company was Lockheed Martin with more than $ 58 billion.

It is followed by Raytheon with just under $ 37 billion and Boeing with a good $ 32 billion.

Chinese companies follow in second place: The five Chinese companies on the Sipri list sold weapons for a total of almost 67 billion US dollars in 2020.

That's 13 percent of arms sales by the hundred largest companies.

They were ahead of companies from Great Britain, whose revenues made up the third largest share.

There are also four German companies on the list.

Together they made just under $ 9 billion from arms sales, an increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year.

Rheinmetall, the largest German arms manufacturer, recorded growth of a good five percent.

The shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp, however, reported a decrease of 3.7 percent.

In total, there are 26 European companies among the hundred largest arms companies.

They make up a good fifth of total sales.

Russia's arms companies in upheaval

Russia's largest arms companies once again made significantly less revenue from arms sales.

Nine Russian companies are on the Sipri list.

Together they achieved sales of 26.4 billion - significantly less than in 2019. This confirmed a downward trend that has persisted since 2017 in the past year as well.

The authors of the report identified a change ordered by the political leadership in Moscow as an important reason for this development: According to this, civil business should account for 30 percent of total company sales by 2025 and half by 2030.

The list includes three Israeli companies that sold arms worth over ten billion dollars.

This roughly corresponds to the total revenue of the five Japanese companies that the institute lists.

The three Indian companies in the top 100 arms manufacturers recorded growth of 1.7 percent compared to the previous year.

This is also likely to be related to the fact that the Indian government announced a gradual ban on imports of certain types of armaments in 2020 in order to strengthen independence in arms production.