European arms imports nearly double in past 5 years: Study

STOCKHOLM — European states imported almost double the amount of arms over the past five years, a think tank said on Monday, as Ukraine emerged as the largest European arms importer after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022.

European imports grew by 94 percent between 2019 and 2023 compared to 2014 to 2018, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said in a statement. Ukraine was the fourth-largest importer in the world between 2019 and 2023, after at least 30 states supplied military aid to it from February 2022.

The United States increased its arms exports by 17 percent from 2019 to 2023, compared to 2014 to 2018, while Russia’s arms exports halved.

“The USA has increased its global role as an arms supplier — an important aspect of its foreign policy — exporting more arms to more countries than it has ever done in the past,” SIPRI said in the statement.

Increased imports from the US underlined many European nations’ desire to quickly acquire weapons and therefore buy “off the shelf” rather than develop new systems.

Globally, US exports grew by 17 percent during that period, bringing its share of total arms exports to 42 percent.

Meanwhile, Russia, which long held the position as the secondlargest exporter, saw its exports fall by 53 percent between 2014-18 and 2019-23.

Russia was not only exporting fewer weapons, but it was also exporting to fewer recipients.

It only exported to 12 countries in 2023, compared to 31 in 2019.

“The low volume of pending deliveries of major arms from Russia suggests that Russian arms exports are likely to remain well below the level reached in 2014 to 18, for at least the short term,” SIPRI said.

While Russia’s exports declined, France saw its own grow by 47 percent, thereby narrowly edging out Russia to become the world’s second-largest exporter.

France accounted for 11 percent of total weapons exports in 2019-23.

In particular, SIPRI researcher Katarina Djokic noted that France had been successful in selling its Rafale fighter jet outside Europe.

The conflict in Gaza, which began in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, has already affected arms imports to Israel.

This is primarily through transfers of weapons from the US, either via new military aid or speeding up of already existing contracts, SIPRI researcher Zain Hussain said.

Hussain cautioned that the longer-term impact of the conflict was harder to predict.