Top arms sellers in 2009
The arms trade is dominated by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, UK and the US, along with Germany and, increasingly, Israel. However, aside from the US, the relative importance of the others depends on what is being studied and who's studying it.
There are two main ways of looking at arms transfer figures: actual deliveries or export orders placed. "Deliveries" are a clearer measure, but "orders", while less concrete, indicate the likely volume of future deliveries.
CAAT uses two main sources for international arms trade figures: the US Congressional Research Service, (which uses non-public US Government data) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI, which uses public sources but does not include components or services).
In 2008 the UK Government stopped producing its own data for arms deliveries, although figures for arms orders continue to be produced by UKTI's Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) in conjunction with the arms industry. These figures give a very different picture to the other data.
Arms deliveries in 2009 - percentage of world total
Congressional Research Service, September 2010
| 1 | US | 41.0 |
| 2 | Russia | 10.6 |
| 3 | Germany | 8.0 |
| 4 | UK | 6.3 |
| 5 | China | 5.1 |
SIPRI, Yearbook 2010, July 2010
| 1 | US | 30.0 |
| 2 | Russia | 19.7 |
| 3 | Germany | 10.9 |
| 4 | France | 8.2 |
| 5 | UK | 4.5 |
Arms export orders in 2009 - percentage of world total
Congressional Research Service, September 2010
| 1 | US | 39.3 |
| 2 | Russia | 18.1 |
| 3 | France | 12.9 |
| 4 | Germany | 6.4 |
| 5 | Italy | 4.7 |
| ... | ||
| 8 | UK | 2.6 |
UKTI DSO, July 2010 (Jane's Defence Weekly, 28 July 2010)
| 1 | US | 35 |
| 2 | UK | 20 |
| 3 | France | 20 |
| 4 | Russia | 10 |
| 5 | Israel | 5 |
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