The World’s Biggest Arms-Exporting Countries

Quick Answer

According to SIPRI’s data for 2021-25, published March 2026, the world’s biggest arms exporter is the United States, holding 42% of global arms exports on its own. France ranks second at 9.8%, while Russia fell from 21% to 6.8% and now ranks third. Türkiye rose from 0.9% to 1.8%, moving up to 11th place. These figures are not dollar sales revenue — they’re based on SIPRI’s standard measure, the trend-indicator value (TIV).

Being the ‘biggest’ arms exporter is often assumed to be a revenue ranking measured in dollars — but the field’s most respected independent source, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), doesn’t publish figures in dollars at all. It uses the trend-indicator value (TIV), a standard unit that measures the military value of major arms systems. This file compares the biggest arms exporters of 2021-25, how dependent each one is on its single largest buyer, and the biggest buyers on the import side — all based on SIPRI’s database update and official fact sheet, both released in March 2026.

Methodology: What The TIV Is, And Isn’t

SIPRI’s TIV is a standardised measure of ‘military value’ based on the known production cost of a weapon system; it does not reflect an actual sale price or contract value and cannot be converted into dollars. SIPRI also separates ‘change in share’ from ‘change in volume’: even if a country’s share of the global total falls, its own export volume can still rise, because the global total itself grew (by 9.2% in 2021-25). Both figures are shown separately in this file and are never conflated.

Data type	Description	Where it’s used in this file
SIPRI TIV export share	A country’s share of global arms exports as measured by SIPRI’s trend-indicator value — not dollar revenue	Main table
Volume change (%)	The change in a country’s total TIV volume between the two periods, not its share; since the global total also grew, a country’s share can fall while its own volume still rises	Main table and third axis
Single-buyer concentration ratio	SIPRI’s own calculation of the share of a supplier’s total exports going to its single largest recipient	Second axis
SIPRI TIV import share	A country’s share of global arms imports, calculated the same way	Third axis

Every figure in this file comes from the March 2026 update of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database and the accompanying ‘Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025’ fact sheet; no additional calculation or estimate was made.

What We Did Not Do In This File

We never presented TIV figures as if they were dollar sales revenue — SIPRI itself does not convert this unit into a monetary value. ‘Volume change’ (%) and ‘share change’ (percentage points) were never conflated: Spain’s share fell from 2.4% to 2.3%, for instance, while its volume still rose by 6.7% — we kept these as two distinct figures rather than merging them. SIPRI’s data on most of Iran’s exports going to Russia, with a smaller share to Houthi forces, is relayed here as raw data only, without commentary. This file’s scope is ‘the biggest exporters’; ‘the fastest-growing exporters’ requires a separate analysis and is not covered here. Finally, we did not reduce Russia’s export decline to a single cause (war, sanctions, domestic demand) — SIPRI doesn’t make that distinction, and neither do we.

The Biggest Arms Exporters of 2021-25

The ranking below covers the top 12 rows of SIPRI’s full 25-country list. Türkiye enters at its own genuine rank, 11th — no country’s position in this file was artificially adjusted.

Biggest Arms Exporters (Global Share, %)

Global export share as measured by SIPRI’s TIV, 2021-25

Rank	Country	Share 2021-25 (%)	Share 2016-20 (%)	Volume change (%)	Source
1	United States	42	36	+27	SIPRI
2	France	9.8	8.8	+21	SIPRI
3	Russia	6.8	21	-64	SIPRI
4	Germany	5.7	5.4	+15	SIPRI
5	China	5.6	5.5	+11	SIPRI
6	Italy	5.1	2.2	+157	SIPRI
7	Israel	4.4	3.1	+56	SIPRI
8	United Kingdom	3.4	3.3	+13	SIPRI
9	South Korea	3.0	2.6	+24	SIPRI
10	Spain	2.3	2.4	+6.7	SIPRI
11	Türkiye	1.8	0.9	+122	SIPRI
12	Netherlands	1.2	2.1	-34	SIPRI

Source: SIPRI, Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025 (March 2026), Table 1. ‘Volume change’ reflects the country’s total TIV volume, not its share.

A MIM-104 Patriot air defence system on display — A MIM-104 Patriot launcher. The Patriot is one of the most widely exported major US weapon systems, and per SIPRI, in 2021-25 the largest single share of US exports (38%) went to Europe for the first time in two decades.

Second Axis: How Dependent Are The Biggest Suppliers On A Single Buyer?

Global share shows how big an exporter a country is; whether that trade is concentrated in a single buyer is a different question. Using the ‘largest single recipient’ data from the same SIPRI table, we ranked the 12 suppliers in the main table by how much of their exports goes to their single biggest customer.

Dependence On The Single Largest Buyer (%)

Share of a supplier’s total exports going to its single largest recipient, 2021-25

Supplier	Single largest buyer	Buyer’s share (of supplier’s total exports, %)	Source
China	Pakistan	61	SIPRI
South Korea	Poland	58	SIPRI
Russia	India	48	SIPRI
United Kingdom	Qatar	31	SIPRI
Israel	India	29	SIPRI
Spain	Saudi Arabia	28	SIPRI
Italy	Qatar	26	SIPRI
Germany	Ukraine	24	SIPRI
France	India	24	SIPRI
Netherlands	Ukraine	23	SIPRI
Türkiye	Pakistan	16	SIPRI
United States	Saudi Arabia	12	SIPRI

The US’s low concentration ratio (12%) shows a customer base far more diversified than any other supplier in this file.

A Pakistan Air Force JF-17 Thunder Block III fighter jet — A JF-17 Thunder, co-developed by China and Pakistan, marked with Pakistan Air Force insignia. Per SIPRI, 61% of China’s total arms exports go to Pakistan alone — the highest single-buyer concentration in this file.

Third Axis: The Import Side — The Biggest Arms Buyers

The mirror image of the export ranking is the import side. Per SIPRI, Ukraine became 2021-25’s largest single recipient, its import share jumping from 0.1% to 9.7% following Russia’s invasion — roughly a 119-fold increase in volume between the two periods.

Biggest Arms Importers (Global Share, %)

Global import share as measured by SIPRI’s TIV, 2021-25

Rank	Country	Share 2021-25 (%)	Share 2016-20 (%)	Volume change (%)	Source
1	Ukraine	9.7	0.1	+11,896	SIPRI
2	India	8.2	9.3	-4.0	SIPRI
3	Saudi Arabia	6.8	11	-31	SIPRI
4	Qatar	6.4	3.4	+106	SIPRI
5	Pakistan	4.2	2.8	+66	SIPRI
6	Japan	3.9	2.5	+76	SIPRI
7	Poland	3.6	0.4	+852	SIPRI
8	United States	2.9	2.1	+48	SIPRI
9	Kuwait	2.8	0.3	+805	SIPRI
10	Australia	2.8	5.0	-39	SIPRI

Source: SIPRI, Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025 (March 2026), Table 2.

Why Did The Ranking Shift Like This?

Europe’s rearmament

Combined arms imports by the 29 European NATO member states grew 143% between 2016-20 and 2021-25; per SIPRI, 58% of that came from the US alone. This demand surge directly boosted the global share of suppliers like the US, France, Germany and Italy.

US exports rose 27%, pushing its global share from 36% to 42%. For the first time in two decades, per SIPRI, the single largest destination for US exports was not the Middle East or Asia, but Europe (38%).

Russia’s sharp drop in export capacity

Russia’s export volume fell 64%, dropping its global share from 21% to 6.8% and knocking it from second to third place. SIPRI does not attribute this to a single cause, and neither do we.

Smaller but fast-growing suppliers

Countries like Italy (+157%), Türkiye (+122%), Sweden (+58%) and Norway (+349%) grew their shares quickly from a relatively small base. This file focuses on where these countries stand in the current ranking; a dedicated ranking by growth rate is covered in a separate file on this site.

Turkey’s Position In This Category

Per SIPRI’s 2021-25 data, Türkiye raised its share of global arms exports from 0.9% to 1.8%, placing it 11th on the 25-country list — a 122% increase in volume. Among the top 15 suppliers, once smaller countries growing fast from a near-zero base (Poland, Norway) are set aside, Türkiye’s growth rate is the second-highest after Italy’s. Türkiye’s largest buyers are Pakistan (16% of its exports), the United Arab Emirates (12%) and Ukraine (8.4%).

World map showing the export distribution of the Bayraktar TB2 drone — A map showing the countries that have received the Bayraktar TB2. Per SIPRI’s separate export data, Türkiye’s total share of global arms exports roughly doubled between 2016-20 and 2021-25.

What The Numbers Do — And Don’t — Say

SIPRI’s data also shows Türkiye is an arms importer: on the import side, it ranks 24th out of 40 countries, with its share falling from 1.5% to 1.2% (a 9.7% drop in volume). A rising export share alongside a falling import share in the same period is not, by itself, proof of ‘import substitution’ — SIPRI draws no direct causal link between the two trends, and neither do we; we simply place two separate official figures side by side.

Together, these figures show Türkiye as a mid-sized supplier that grew relatively quickly over the past five years — neither an overstated ‘top-tier’ claim nor a ‘falling behind’ narrative is supported by this data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which country is the world’s biggest arms exporter?

Per SIPRI’s 2021-25 data, the United States holds 42% of global arms exports on its own, far ahead of any other country.

Are the ‘share’ figures in this file in dollars?

No. SIPRI measures these figures using its trend-indicator value (TIV), a standardised unit based on the known production cost of major arms systems; it cannot be directly converted into dollars.

Why did Russia’s arms exports fall so much?

Per SIPRI, Russia’s export volume fell 64% between 2016-20 and 2021-25, dropping its global share from 21% to 6.8%. SIPRI does not attribute this decline to a single cause.

Which country is most dependent on a single buyer?

Among the top 12 suppliers in this file, China has the highest single-buyer concentration — 61% of its exports go to Pakistan alone.

Where does Turkey rank in arms exports?

Per SIPRI’s 2021-25 data, Türkiye ranks 11th on the 25-country list with a 1.8% share, up from 0.9% in the previous five-year period.

Which country is the world’s biggest arms importer?

Per SIPRI, Ukraine became 2021-25’s largest single recipient with a 9.7% share of global imports, up from just 0.1% in the prior period.

Sources

SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) — Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025, Fact Sheet, March 2026
SIPRI Arms Transfers Database — March 2026 update

Methodology Note

Every figure in this file comes from a single source: SIPRI’s official fact sheet published in March 2026 and the accompanying database update. SIPRI’s TIV is not a dollar sales value, and figures for past periods can be revised in later annual updates. Readers should check SIPRI’s official publications directly for the latest confirmation.

Envanter Medya Viral Defence Index

The World’s Biggest Arms-Exporting Countries

Methodology: What The TIV Is, And Isn’t

The Biggest Arms Exporters of 2021-25

Second Axis: How Dependent Are The Biggest Suppliers On A Single Buyer?

Third Axis: The Import Side — The Biggest Arms Buyers