Who Arms the World?
The global weapons industry behind Israel, Ukraine and Russia
There is a question that is rarely asked with sufficient precision:
Who actually supplies the weapons behind today’s major wars?
The political debate usually focuses on alliances, ideology and military strategy.
But there is another dimension that is far more concrete:
Who manufactures the weapons, who exports them, who imports them—and who ultimately controls the global arms supply chain?
The latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), covering 2021–2025, provide a revealing picture.
And the conclusion is difficult to ignore.
The United States dominates the global arms market
The United States is by far the world’s largest exporter of major conventional weapons.
Between 2021 and 2025, the US accounted for 42% of global arms exports.
France was second with 9.8%, Russia third with 6.8%, Germany fourth with 5.7% and China fifth with 5.6%.
Italy ranked sixth with 5.1%, followed by Israel with 4.4%. (SIPRI)
The gap between Washington and its competitors is extraordinary.
The United States alone exported more major arms than the next three countries combined.
And American exports increased by 27% compared with the previous five-year period.
This is not simply an industrial statistic.
It is a measure of geopolitical power.
The country that controls a large portion of the world’s advanced military supply chain also possesses enormous influence over the military capabilities of its allies and partners.
Israel: overwhelmingly dependent on US weapons
Israel has one of the most sophisticated domestic defence industries in the world.
It is also itself a major arms exporter: SIPRI ranks Israel as the world’s seventh-largest arms supplier, with 4.4% of global exports in 2021–25. (SIPRI)