Arms trade

Countries Buying the Most Weapons From the US Government

The U.S. government sent nearly $10 billion worth of military vehicles and weapons systems to foreign governments last year. The United States is easily the largest exporter of arms in the world, surpassing other producers such as Russia and China by billions of dollars each year.

In the past five years, more than 100 nations have directly purchased aircraft, ships, armored vehicles, and missiles from the U.S. government. When excluding those nations that are not under international embargo, relatively few countries are left out of American arms deals. A few others, however, receive a disproportionately large share of American weapons. Thirteen countries accounted for almost 70% of U.S. 2016 arms exports. Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. partner in the Middle East, received almost 20% of total U.S. weapons exports.