Weapons purchases are booming in Europe. Planes, rockets, torpedoes and armored vehicles: +94%

Europe is arming itself. With the winds of war blowing from the East, the countries of the Old Continent rush to purchase fighters, frigates and tanks. Between 2019 and 2023, arms imports increased by 94% compared to the previous four years. The contracts were signed mainly with the United States, the world’s largest exporter with a market share that has risen to 42%. A third of the deliveries made by Washington went to NATO countries. The report just published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute leaves no doubt: the arms race is stronger than ever with the war between Russia and Ukraine tearing the Old Continent apart, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East and the attack ‘Iran. In this context, Italy found itself to be the sixth exporter in the world, increasing sales by 86%. France even gained second place, displacing Russia. Moscow, due to the clash with Kiev, has cut its arms exports by 53% since 24 February 2023. Planes, drones and missiles are now needed for the special operation in Ukraine and Russia can no longer afford to ship too many weapons abroad. There is however a share to be sold on the market, half of which flies to India and China.

«In 2019 – explains the report from the Swedish institute – the volume of Russian exports was similar to that of the previous twenty years, with 41 states as customers. In 2023, sales halved and the countries supplied dropped to twelve.” XI Jinping, despite the alliance with Vladimir Putin, has reduced the purchase of fighters and armored vehicles from the Kremlin as well as cut supplies arriving from other countries. China prefers to produce weapons at home and can count on two million personnel, 510 thousand reservists and 624 thousand paramilitaries. At the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Moscow army had one million 320 thousand men and two million reservists. Last year, Russia, which has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, budgeted $86.4 billion for military spending. And it has been supplied with drones in Iran and ballistic missiles in North Korea from its friend Kim Jong-un. Iran, despite managing just 0.2% of global arms sales, saw its exports increase by 276%. Three-quarters of the business is with Moscow. However, Tehran is the only one that appears in official reports as a supplier of the Houthis, the rebels who fire missiles from Yemen at cargoes bound for Israel to protest against the killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

Global military spending, according to the Sipri Yearbook, reached $2,240 billion in 2023. 35% of US shipments flew to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Israel shared the cake. 28% landed in NATO Europe and 4.7% in Ukraine. Due to war needs, Kiev found itself increasing its imports of armaments by 6,633% in the space of a couple of years. 55% of the weapons landed in Europe come from the USA, until 2018 the share stood at 35%. 95% of those directed to Rome have the seal of Washington. Italy has reduced purchases and increased sales, by 86% to be precise. The turnover with the countries of the Union has reached 61.5 billion euros while exports to non-EU states are at 38.5 billion according to the data of the «Report on authorized operations for the control of export, import and transit of armament materials” published by the Chamber of Deputies. Italy sells warplanes (for 991 million), rockets and torpedoes (558.7 million), armored vehicles (546.5 million) and electronic equipment (350.48 million).