UK biggest in global arms trade

[tigershark]

UK biggest in global arms trade
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain was the world's biggest arms seller last year, accounting for a third of global arms exports, the government's trade promotion organisation said on Tuesday.

UK Trade and Investment said arms exporters had added $19 billion (9.7 billion pounds) in new business last year, giving them a larger share of global arms exports than the United States.

"As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first class defence industry, with some of the world's most technologically sophisticated companies," the government's minister for trade and investment, Digby Jones, said.

UKTI said the figures were boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest arms buyer, which imported $31 billion in weapons over the last five years.

The United States still tops the world for the last five years with $63 billion in total arms exports. Britain was second with $53 billion and Russia third with $33 billion, it said.

Source
http://uk.reuters.com/article/allBreakingNews/idUKL1718846720080617

[MightyHunter]

Would be nice if the UK spending actually reflected on what state it is in today.Lies and Spin



We all belive 

[valkyrian]

I can't believe that Britain superseeded the US in arms deals.

Mighty hunter what exactly do you mean?

[MightyHunter]

I meaning

If the UK was the largest in global arms trade why the hell are we struggling for equipment in Iraq and Afghan, we cannot barely kit our own troops never mind sell all this arms to other countries, it just does not make sense.

The government release stories like this to make us all think the UK is doing great but in reality for one day thanks to the typhoon order the UK overtook the US , just for one day though

I am a conspiracy theorist , I just hate spin and lies from our government making us beleive we are big when really we are struggling in the military front

[valkyrian]

I see what you mean. I believe that Britain today isn't what it was lets say in the break of WW2. Things has changed. I hope that what you luck in military power is more than balanced by other things such health and education system, social services etc.

[Webmaster]

Why not? Theoretically a country can be the biggest arms trader and have no military itself. So why can't the UK be doing good in trade, while it's own military has shortages. It's not like the technology know-how, production capacity or raw materials are the bottleneck, it's all about what the UK can(not) spend on defense. Actually the bigger the funding shortage, the larger your arms export should be, to fill the gap. For example those Saudi Typhoons will be coming from RAF production lots. There's a bit of spin involved of course, I mean without the Typhoon the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would probably be better equipped, however you wouldn't be the (second) largest in the trade then. But that's hindsight, now you should be glad about this achievement, at least the UK is making some additional return on investment for its defense spending, you might just as well ended up fifth place on that list behind Germany and France. Look at France, military is in bad shape as well, largely still a Cold War era force, huge investment on next generation fighter, but no sales, and now fifth on the list, used to be second not too long ago.

I hope that what you luck in military power is more than balanced by other things such health and education system, social services etc.

Sssst, don't get him mad. 

[MightyHunter]

Yeah pay imigrants money , give them tax releif and pay them stupid amounts of cash to get a house in the UK and claim benefits each week without working hehehehe

The UK is an immigrants heaven and us good workers pay for it lol its crazy and annoying its laughable , anyway back on topic

Good news for UK France yesterday m they announced the 2 new huge carriers for the UK , im sure France has a major say in it too , I dont know why but it has cause french companies i think will help build them so yes good for UK investment , next to the USA the UK has taken the big step to have a supercarrier , that does show a long term commitment to what the UK wants to acheive over the next 50 odd years , we will have a superior airborne attack navy fleet even to the russians and the Chinese but watch this space. I rant on about poor military guffs the UK has done over the years , the new Nimrod we are supposed to be getting is like 10 years too late and with such tradgedy if a replacement was in service on time . Typhoon is just in now and is very good but again will be out of date in 10 years in my opinion. None of these at moment are helping in the places where the UK is needing new advanced stuff, with so many experienced pilots and engineers leaving the military through many reasons the UK is in for serious big trouble very very soon . Only now at work are they realising the chain of command has boobed up for many years but it is now irrevesable. So the UK may look good to other countries but beleive me its in a very sorry state on the home front and does not reflect to what the government may say they doing well in defense

new government the better