Besides the usual dominance by companies in US and Europe, South Korea has emerged as the dark horse that is slowly cementing its position as one of the "established players" in global arms sales. This growth is primarily led by US companies who control over half of world's arms sales. Led by Lockheed Martin, world's largest arms producer US companies grew at 4 per cent to $217.2 billion. These companies in western Europe recorded sales worth $91 billion.Russian arms manufacturers who are close third to the US and European companies recorded combined sales of $26.6 billion in 2016, a 7 percent growth. SIPRI says though Russian arms sales are growing their pace has slowed down because of the country's domestic economic issues.

Source: Economic Times December 11, 2017 04:29 UTC