6. Arms production

Summary

The restructuring of arms production continued
in 1999, while the decline in the general level of arms production
appears to have ceased towards the end of the 1990s. The aggregate
arms sales of the ‘SIPRI top 100’ arms-producing companies
in the OECD and developing countries, which account for roughly
three-quarters of total world arms production, declined by 29%
during the first half of the 1990s, but by only 3% during the
period 1995–98. In 1998 their total arms sales amounted
to $155 billion.

Since 1997 the Russian Government has assigned a higher priority
to arms production in an effort to stop the deterioration of
its defence industrial base. The decline in Russian arms production
ceased in 1997; in 1999 it increased by 37% but it still amounted
to only 13.5% of Soviet arms production in 1991. A significant
part, although it is not known how much, of Russian arms production
is for export.

The restructuring process in the OECD arms industries in the
1990s has resulted in greater concentration, particularly among
the larger companies, and in diversification from military to
civilian products in industries and in individual companies.
A few companies have tended instead to specialize in military
production, thereby increasing their dependence on arms sales
and often also on arms exports.

Appendix 6A. The 100 largest arms producing companies, 1998

REINHILDE WEIDACHER AND THE SIPRI ARMS INDUSTRY NETWORK

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Appendix 6A is a table of the 100 largest
arms-producing companies in 1998.

Appendix 6B. Major acquisitions by West European and US arms-producing companies, 1998-January 2000

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Appendix 6B presents tables showing
major acquisitions by arms-producing companies in Western Europe
and the USA between 1998 and January 2000.