Washington, for instance, generates a steady stream of orders for upgrades, spare parts, ammunition and support services from year to year, even when it does not conclude big deals for new weapons systems, the report said.
Concerns about Iran continued to fuel arms sales to the Middle East and especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but India, Taiwan and other Asian countries were important arms buyers as well, said the report, written by Richard Grimmett and Paul Kerr.
The report predicted increasingly intense competition between European nations and the United States for a small number of global orders in coming years.
It also noted that developing countries were demanding greater cost offsets in their arms contracts, access to more advanced technology and provisions allowing them to produce some weapons at home.
Key U.S. weapons sales in 2011 included:
- $33.4 billion to Saudi Arabia for 84 Boeing Co F-15 fighters, dozens of helicopters built by Boeing and Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp,
- $3.49 billion for Lockheed Martin Corp’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced missile shield, to the United Arab Emirates, and $940 million for 16 Chinook helicopters built by Boeing,
- $1.4 billion for 18 F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin,
- a $4.1 billion agreement with India for 10 C-17 transport planes built by Boeing,
- and a $2 billion order by Taiwan for Patriot antimissile batteries.