Charted: the world's biggest arms importers

Rising tension drives value of international arms trade up 13pc to $64bn with Saudi Arabia the new big spender

Saudi Arabia - which bought Typhoon fighters, above, from BAE Systems - is the world's biggest importer of arms Credit: Photo: BAE

Increasing geo-political tensions drove cross-border arms sales up by more than 13pc to $64.4bn (£42.8bn) last year as developing countries strengthened their militaries against new and growing threats.

Saudi Arabia became the world’s biggest buyer of weapons, increasing its imports of defence equipment by 54pc to $6.5bn in 2014, replacing India at the top of table which spent $5.8bn, according to new data from IHS.

“This record figure has been driven by unparalleled demand for military aircraft and an escalation of regional tensions in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific,” said Ben Moores, senior defence analyst at IHS.

“Growth in Saudi Arabia has been dramatic and based on previous orders – these numbers are not going to slow down.”

The Middle Eastern nation is the UK defence industry’s biggest export market, with sales of $1.7bn last year, according to IHS’s Global Defence Trade Report, and an order backlog over the next decade currently worth $9.2bn.

Major arms purchases Saudi Arabia has made from the UK include Typhoon fighters, with 72 of the supersonic jets either delivered or on order.

British arms companies had total export sales of $4.2bn last year and a programme of $26.2bn of work over next 10 years.

After Saudi Arabia, Indonesia was the UK’s-second largest foreign customer with sales of $306m, followed by Sweden at $211m.

How much is being spent in the Gulf region is illustrated by the fact that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates imported around $8.6bn in defence systems last year - more than Western Europe combined.

“When you look at the likely addressable export opportunities at a global level in defence, five of the leading countries are from the Middle East,” said Mr Moores. “The Middle East is the biggest regional market and there are $110bn of opportunities in the coming decade.”

Despite slowing military spending in the West, IHS forecast that global arms sales will increase to $70.1bn in 2015.

China’s new focus on its military helped it move up two spaces to third place in the list of biggest arms importers in 2014 with spending of $2.6bn, of which $2.3bn went on Russian weaponry.

Britain had the fourth-largest exports of arms, at $4.2bn, but this was dwarfed by the US at $23.7bn. Russia was ranked second at $10bn, though this is expected to drop as sanctions bite, and in third place was France at $4.9bn.

IHS’s data covers the entire arms market, excluding small arms and munitions, and includes production, research and development, support and services, as well as hardware.

US companies were the biggest exporters of military equipment and services according to the report, with Boeing in the lead at $5.6bn, followed by Lockheed Martin at $5.1bn, then Raytheon at $3.5bn. Airbus was fourth at $2.9bn, then Russia’s UAC at $2.9bn. BAE Systems was 10th at $2bn.

Aircraft were the biggest spending area, with $23.2bn of total exports going on them and a further $3bn on engines for them. Some $7.3bn was spent on military land vehicles, $7.1bn on radar, $5.4bn on communications and $5.2bn on ships.

Airbus's sales of the A400m transporter helped boost the companies export figures