Israel has become the sixth largest arms exporter in the world, a newly released military intelligence report says.
The report released on June 24 by IHS Jane’s, a business intelligence company working on military as well as security topics, said Israel overtook a number of countries including Italy, China, Canada and Sweden in the global arms trade.
“Israel’s exports increased 74 percent to USD 2.4 billion and their market share has risen from 2.4 percent to 3.5 percent. Mainly with sales to India,” the report added.
The United States and Russia, with the export of over USD 28 billion and USD 10 billion respectively in 2012, have been the world’s top arms exporters, while France with USD 4.5 billion in sales and the United Kingdom with some USD 4 billion in sales rank third and fourth.
The world’s fifth-largest arms exporter is Germany with an export total of USD 3 billion, the report noted.
The major importers of arms are India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, South Korea, Australia and Iraq, the report said.
In May, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said the United States and Russia hold market shares of 30 percent and 26 percent respectively in arms exporters.
