Saudi Arabia has been announced the world’s largest importer of defence equipments by IHS analytics. It has overtaken India in the list of top importers of arms while China jumped to third position from fifth.
In 2014 the global defence trade has escalated from 56.8 billion Dollars to 64.4 billion Dollars for the sixth straight year. The report thus, examined that Saudi Arabia’s defence market stood at 6.4 billion Dollars in 2014 while India was at 5.57 billion Dollar
As per the predictions one out of seven Dollars will be spent by Middle East kingdom on defence kits in 2015 fuelled by the tensions uprising in the country.
China is the first largest recipient of defence kits worth 2.3 billion Dollars from Russia followed by India receiving 1.7 billion Dollars and Venezuela and Vietnam at 1 billion Dollars.
In a statement, Paul Burton, Director of Defence Industry & Budgets at IHS Aerospace, Defence and Security said, “China continues to require military aerospace assistance from Russia and its total defence procurement budget will continue to rise very quickly.”
The United States tops the list of the top exporter, shipping 23.7 billion Dollars of equipment, followed by Russia (10 billion Dollars), France (4.9
The report also showed South Korea as an eminent regional leader for defence equipment imports. The country is expected to grow as a rising star of the Asia Pacific defence industry.
Meanwhile, in companies, Boeing is continually listed as the top firm for defence exports followed by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
