F16 fighting Falcon made in USA

Global arms sales are still booming, despite efforts by United Nations to make the world a more peaceful place.

Companies headquartered in the United States and Western Europe continue to dominate the global arms industry, with a share of 80.3 percent of the Top 100 total arms revenues for 2014, a Stockholm think tank said Monday.

The revenues of the Top 100, the largest arms-producing companies by arms sales, totalled 401 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, which represents a decrease of 1.5 percent compared to that in 2013, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report released online.

Of the top 100 defence companies listed, 64 were based in the United States and Western Europe.

All companies ranked in the Top 10 are based in the United States and Western Europe, with combined turnover making up about half of the total sales of the Top 100 in 2014.

U.S. arms-producing companies account for 54.4 percent share of the Top 100 despite a 4.1 percent decrease in sales between 2013 and 2014. One U.S. company bucking the downward trend is Lockheed Martin, which has occupied the first position in the Top 100 since 2009, the report noted.

Its arms sales grew by 3.9 percent in 2014 to 37.5 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Boeing, which had total arms sales of 28.3 billion dollars.

The most significant falls in revenue are observable in Western European companies, with a 7.4 percent decrease in combined arms sales, reflecting the economic difficulties in the region, the SIPRI report said.

Of the nine Western European countries with companies ranked in the Top 100 in 2014, only Germany and Switzerland showed increases in their arms sales, with a growth rate of 9.4 percent and 11.2 percent respectively.

Russian companies share of the Top 100 total revenues increased to 10.2 percent of the Top 100, up from 7.6 percent in 2013, with 11 companies now ranked in the SIPRI Top 100 compared to nine in 2013.

*Xinhua/NAN