Sales of weapons and military gear by the world’s top arms manufacturers world grew in 2021, according to new data released this week.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the top 100 weapons companies in the world sold $592 billion worth of gear last year – a 1.9% increase from the year previous. This represents the seventh consecutive growth in global arms sales.
However, last year the industry experienced supply chain issues due to Covid-19 restrictions, which delayed the shipping of vital components and materials. And SIPRI expects these issues to be made even worse by the war in Ukraine.
“We might have expected even greater growth in arms sales in 2021 without persistent supply chain issues,” said Dr Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
“Both larger and smaller arms companies said that their sales had been affected during the year. Some companies, such as Airbus and General Dynamics, also reported labour shortages.”
This problem has been exacerbated by Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which began in February of this year. Russia is a major supplier of raw materials used in arms production, which poses a significant challenge to Western militaries in Europe and North America.
As reported previously by Gript, NATO countries are beginning to experience a dangerous arms shortage after pouring billions of euros worth of weapons into Ukraine, to the point where some countries are concerned they may not have the resources to sufficiently defend themselves if necessary.
NATO experiencing weapon shortage after pouring arms into Ukraine#gripthttps://t.co/MWuGcXb3lp
— gript (@griptmedia) October 25, 2022
While some countries are making an effort to shore up holes in their national stockpiles, SIPRI Senior Researcher Dr. Diego Lopes da Silva says that this may be a slow process.
“Increasing output takes time,” he said.
“If supply chain disruptions continue, it may take several years for some of the main arms producers to meet the new demand created by the Ukraine war.”
Russia has experienced problems of its own, however. While Russian arms companies do appear to be increasing production because of the ongoing war, a global shortage of semiconductors has created challenges in manufacturing certain kinds of weapon.
Additionally, war-related sanctions have caused issues, with Russian companies such as Almaz-Antey saying that it has not been able to receive payments for some of its weapon exports.
While enormous quantities of weapons have been poured into Ukraine to aid it in its war against Russia, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has said that it believes criminals across Europe have acquired military arms which were meant to go to Ukrainian forces.
Finnish authorities have reported that grenades, rifles and explosives sent to Ukraine may have already ended up in the hands of criminals across Europe.#gripthttps://t.co/Qw7xwn0A3s
— gript (@griptmedia) November 2, 2022