Arms sales of top Indian firms drop 6.9%: Sipri report

US MANUFACTURERS ALONE ACCOUNTED FOR 59%OF THE MARKET, OR A TURNOVER OF $246 BILLION, UP 7.2% ON THE PREVIOUS YEAR.

NEWDELHI: The combined sales of three Indian companies that figure among the world’s 100 top arms suppliers stood at $5.9 billion in 2018, a drop of 6.9% compared to the previous year, according to the latest data released by a leading Stockholmbased think-tank that tracks the weapons industry.

The sales fell during the oneyear period because of fewer orders from the Indian armed forces, showed the figures published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

The three Indian companies on Sipri’s list of top 100 global arms firms are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Indian Ordnance Factories and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL); their global ranks last year stood at 38, 56 and 62 respectively.

“All three are state-owned and are almost entirely dependent on domestic demand. Arms sales by HAL and BEL increased in 2018 — by 3.5 and 5.9% -- respectively. However, these increases were offset by a 27% fall in the arms sales of Indian Ordnance Factories,” the Sipri report said.

“The data indicates that the quantum of funds spent on capital programmes by the Indian military has come down. It is no secret that the armed forces need more money to ensure there is no capability attrition,” said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies. The overall sales of the defence sector’s top 100 companies totalled $420 billion in 2018, an increase of 4.6% compared to the previous year, Sipri said. The top 100 firms exclude Chinese companies “due to the lack of data to make a reliable estimate”.

Figures show that the US continues to dominate the defence sector, with the top five spots held by American arms giants -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics. “These five companies accounted for $148 billion and 35% of arms sales in 2018 by the top 100 companies. The total arms sales of US companies in the ranking amounted to $246 billion, equivalent to 59% of all arms sales. This is an increase of 7.2% compared with 2017,” the report said. The combined arms sales of the 10 Russian companies stood at $36.2 billion in 2018, a decrease of 0.4% over the previous year. The Russian share in the total sales dipped from 9.7% in 2017 to 8.6% in 2018.

“Arms sales by Almaz-antey, the largest arms producer in Russia, continued to grow in 2018. This increase was due not only to strong domestic demand, but also to continued growth in sales to other countries, particularly of the S-400 air defence system,” said Alexandra Kuimova, a researcher for Sipri’s arms and military expenditure programme.