Profits built on wars and destruction? SIPRI report says surge in top global arms producers revenues

New Delhi: The world’s 100 largest global arms-producing companies generated a record $679 billion through revenues from sales of weapons and military services in 2024, a new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows.

In its report published on Monday, SIPRI said that revenues from military goods and services went up by 5.9 percent over the previous year. This surge was driven by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, growing geopolitical tensions, and steady increase in military spending worldwide, the report said.

Most of the global spike came from arms companies in Europe and the United States. Every other region also witnessed growth, except Asia and Oceania, where issues within China’s arms industry went a long way in the region’s total to fall.

Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics were on top of the list in the US, where the total arms revenues for companies in the top 100 rose by 3.8 percent in 2024 to $334 billion. Of the 39 US companies included in the ranking, 30 recorded growth in revenues.

But SIPRI pointed out that big projects such as the F-35, the Columbia and Virginia-class submarines, and the Sentinel missile are still delayed and costing more than initially planned.

For the first time, Elon Musk’s SpaceX made it to the list of top global military producers as its arms revenues more than doubled compared with 2023 to reach $1.8 billion.

Leaving out Russia, Europe had as many as 26 companies among the top 100 arms manufacturers, and 23 of them generated revenue more from selling weapons and equipment. Their total revenue grew 13 percent to $151 billion.

Through making artillery shells for Ukraine, Czech company Czechoslovak Group increased its revenues by 193 percent to reach $3.6 billion. The Group posted the highest percentage increase in arms revenues of any top 100 company in 2024. Another firm that made substantial revenue growth was the JSC Ukrainian Defense Industry. Which increased its arms revenues by 41 percent to $3 billion.

The only two Russian arms companies in the ranking are Rostec and United Shipbuilding Corporation. These two raised their combined arms revenues by 23 percent to $31.2 billion, even though they were paralysed by Western-led sanctions over the Ukraine war.

In 2024, weapons manufacturers in Asia and Oceania generated $130 billion in revenues, down 1.2 percent from the previous year.

The drop in the region was primarily because of a 10 percent drop in arms revenues among China’s eight ranked companies, especially NORINCO, whose land systems sales plummeted by 31 percent.

However, Japanese and South Korean arms producers recorded sales jump, driven by robust European and domestic demand amid looming tensions in Taiwan and North Korea.

SIPRI report indicates that for the first time, nine of the top 100 arms-producing companies were based in the Middle East. The nine companies generated a combined $31 billion in revenues in 2024, showing a regional raise of 14 percent.

The three Israeli arms-making companies in the ranking registered combined revenues increase by 16 percent to $16.2 billion, amid the ongoing Gaza was, which has killed almost 70,000 Palestinians.

Elbit Systems made a profit of $6.28 billion, followed by Israel Aerospace Industries ($5.19 billion) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems ($4.7 billion).

The list also included military firms from the UK, India, France, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Taiwan, Norway, Canada, Spain, and Poland.