The U.S. maintained its position as the largest arms exporter, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members in Europe failed to achieve defense autonomy, said a leading Swedish think tank in a report Monday.
Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveals that between 2020 and 2024, the share of U.S. arms in total global arms export rose to 43 percent, a significant increase from 35 percent between 2015 and 2019.
The report shows that the U.S. share of exports is more than four times that of second-ranked France, and about equal to the share of the countries ranked second through ninth combined.
Over the past five years, the U.S. has exported arms to over100 countries and regions, making it Ukraine's largest arms supplier. Ukraine has become the world's largest arms importer, with imports rising nearly 100 times from 2015 to 2019, 45 percent of which came from the United States.
The arms imports by the European members of NATO also increased 105 percent from 2015 to 2019, with the share of U.S. weapons rising from 52 percent to 64 percent.
Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI, said that although European NATO states have taken steps to reduce their dependence on arms imports and to strengthen the European arms industry, the transatlantic arms-supply relationship has deep roots.
For the first time in 20 years, Europe has overtaken the Middle East as the largest exporter of U.S. arms. Compared to the previous five-year period, the share of U.S. arms exports to Europe jumped from 13 percent to 35 percent between 2020 and 2024. The exports to the Middle East accounted for 33 percent between 2020 and 2024.
Compared to the previous five-year period, France's share of the global arms export market rose to 9.6 percent between 2020 and 2024 from 8.6 percent. Exports to European countries nearly trebled, led by a surge in exports to Greece, Croatia and Ukraine.
US remains largest arms exporter: think tank
