Largest armament manufacturers worldwide based on defense revenue 2023

In 2023, Lockheed Martin was the leading armament manufacturer in the world. The defense company from the United States had a defense revenue of 65 billion U.S. dollars that year. Second on the worldwide comparison is Aviation Industry Corporation of China with a revenue of 45 billion U.S. dollars. The manufacturer with the highest revenue outside of the United States and China was BAE Systems from the UK, ranked seventh.

The global arms trade

Globally, the United States had the highest proportion of weapons exports in the world, amounting to 42 percent of the total market share. Meanwhile, Russia and France followed with an 11 percent market share each. In terms of imports, India had the largest market share of weapons imports at 9.8 percent, and Saudi Arabia followed second with an 8.4 percent market share.

Global defense spending growth

Many of armament manufacturers have seen their revenues increase in recent decades. Global military spending has been on a steady increase since the early 2000’s, going from 1.14 billion U.S. dollars in 2001 to 2.44 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, due to factors such as 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the current war in Ukraine. In 2023, the United States was overwhelmingly the country with the highest defense spending, totaling 916 billion U.S. dollars. By comparison, China followed with 296 billion U.S. dollars in defense spending.