United States Arms Trade

The U.S. is by far the largest exporter of weapons in the world, with a sales volume that exceeds the next 14 countries combined! Military sales equate to about 18 percent of the Federal budget, far & away the greatest proportion of any nation. John Ralston Saul states that the American government cannot reduce arms sales because of the consequent fall in GDP. (See John Ralston Saul's The Collapse of Globalism, 2005)

U.S. arms are sold either as Foreign Military Sales (FMS), in which The Pentagon is an intermediate negotiator, or as Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), where a company directly negotiates with its buyer. Many sales require a license from the State Department. The Defense Department manages the Excess Defense Articles (EDA), weapons from the US military given away or sold at bargain prices, emergency drawdowns, assistance provided at the discretion of the President, and International Military Education and Training (IMET).

From 1989 to 1996, the global value of DCS was US$257 billion, of which 45% was exported from the US. According to the 2005 annual US congress reports, 58% of all US arms trade contracts are made with developing countries. The most recent World Policy Report, an annual update issued by the Arms Trade Research Center, a more detailed breakdown of US military spending is offered.

In it, it was stated that "In 2003, the US transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in active conflicts. From Angola, Chad & Ethiopia, to Colombia, Pakistan and the Philippines, transfers through the two largest U.S. arms sales programs (Foreign Military Sales & Direct Commercial Sales) to these conflict nations totaled nearly $1 billion in 2003, with the vast bulk of the dollar volume going to Israel ($845.6 million).

In 2003, more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world were defined as undemocratic by the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report: in the sense that "citizens do not have the right to change their own government" or that right was seriously abridged. These nations received over $2.7 billion in U.S. arms transfers under the FMS & DCS programs in 2003, with the top recipients including Saudi Arabia ($1.1 billion), Egypt ($1.0 billion), Kuwait ($153 million), the UAE ($110 million) & Uzbekistan ($33 million)."

In fiscal year 2002, $70 million USD was spent on International Military Education & Training (IMET) for 113 countries. During this same year, $46 million worth of drawdowns were provided to Nigeria ($4 million), Afghanistan ($2 million), Georgia ($25 million), the Philippines ($10 million) & Tunisia ($5 million).

Defense contractors are weapon manufacturers or companies participating in weapon research & warfare simulation. A list of major weapon manufacturers are given below:

AAI Corporation
BAE Systems Inc.
Boeing
Carlyle Group
Colt's Manufacturing Company
General Atomics
General Electric
General Dynamics
Honeywell
Lockheed-Martin
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Raytheon Corporation
United Defense (now BAE Systems Land and Armaments)

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)