American arms sales jumped 25% in 2017, says US defense department

WASHINGTON DC: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, on Wednesday announced sales of $41.93 billion for fiscal 2017, a 25 percent rise from a year earlier.

The agency, which is part of the US Department of Defense, said sales included $32.02 billion funded by partner nations through the Foreign Military Sales system and $6.04 billion funded by the State Department's Foreign Military Financing.



Earlier, a military think tank report in Europe had said that China has almost doubled its weapons exports in the past five years as the world’s third-largest weapons exporter pours capital into developing an advanced arms manufacturing industry.

Chinese exports of major arms, which excludes most light weaponry, grew by 88 per cent in 2011-2015 compared to the earlier five-year time frame, the report said.

The country still accounted for only 5.9 percent of global arms exports from 2011-2015, well behind the United States and Russia, by far the world’s two largest arms exporters.