Weapon Industry

By:-Arnold Jeyan

Introduction about Weapon industry

•The weapons industry is a global business thatmanufactures weapons and military technology and equipment.

•This industry involved in research, development, production, and the service of military material, equipment, and facilities.

•Produce arms mainly for the armed forces of states.

•Products include guns, ammunition, missiles, military aircraft, military vehicles, ships, electronic systems, and more.

•It is estimated that yearly, over 1.5 trillion US dollars are spent on military expenditures worldwide.

•The combined arms sales of the top 100 largest arms producing companies amounted to an estimated $395 billion in 2012 according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

•Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an independent international  institute in Sweden, dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.

•Many industrialized countries have a domestic arms industry to supply their own military forces. Some countries also have a substantial legal or illegal domestic trade in weapons for use by its citizens

•The Small Arms Survey estimates 875 million small arms in circulation worldwide, produced by more than 1,000 companies from nearly 100 countries.

•Contracts to supply Weapons for the military usages are awarded by the government.

History of weapon Production

•Trade in weapons and technological usages is as old as the history of war itself.

•During the early period, France,England,Netherlands and some states in Germany became leading countries in arms production.

•The modern arms industry emerged in the second half of the 19th century as a product, of the creation and expansion of the first large military-industrial companies.

•In 1854, the British government awarded a contract to the Elswick Ordnance Company ofindustrialist William Armstrong for the supply of his latest breech loading rifled artillery pieces.

• Armstrong became one of the first international arms dealers, selling his weapon systems to governments across the world from Brazil to Japan

•In 1885, France decided to capitalize on this increasingly profit making form of trade, and cancel its ban on weapon exports.

•During the world wars and revolutions arm dealers were called as “Merchant of death”, and mainly accused by U.S

Worlds largest money making industry

2013 rank Supplier Arms exports

1  Russia 8283

2  United States 6153

3  China 1837

4  France 1489

5  United Kingdom 1394

6  Germany 972

7  Italy 807

8  Israel 773

2013 rank Recipient Arms imports

1  Saudi Arabia 6500

2  India 5670

3  China 3891

4  United Arab Emirates 2100

5  Taiwan 1890

6  Azerbaijan 921

7  Indonesia 774

Rank Company CountryArms sales (US$ m.)

Total sales (US$ m.)

Arms sales as a %

of total sales

Total profit

Total employm

ent

1 Lockheed Martin United States

35 490 45 500 78 2 981 115 000

2 Boeing  United States

30 700 86 623 35 4 585 168 400

3 BAE Systems United Kingdom

26 820 28 406 94 275 84 600

4 Raytheon  United States

21 950 23 706 93 2 013 63 000

5 Northrop Grumman United States

20 200 24 661 82 1 952 65 300

6 General Dynamics United States

18 660 31 218 60 2 357 96 000

7 EADS  European Union

15 740 78 693 20 1 959 144 060

Arms control

•Arms control refers to international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction

Discussion1. Should we ban weapons from

domestic usages

•The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members. •Prior to driving to the school, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the scene, Lanzacommitted suicide by shooting himself in the head.

•The incident was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school or grade school in U.S. history and the second-deadliest mass shooting by a single person in U.S. history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.

•The Virginia Tech shooting was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States.

•Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide (another six people were injuredescaping from classroom windows).

• The attack is the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history and one of the deadliest by a single gunman worldwide.

Tunisia museum attack kills at least 19; three suspects sought(CNN)Gunmen killed 19 people and sent tourists scrambling for cover in a siege at a museum in Tunisia's capital on Wednesday.The North African nation's Prime Minister called it a cowardly terrorist attack and warned that three suspects were still on the loose.

•Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) published a video report of immense implications – possibly the first national broadcaster in the West to admit that the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is supplied not by “black market oil” or “hostage ransoms” but billions of dollars worth of supplies carried into Syria across NATO member Turkey’s borders via hundreds of trucks a day.

•The number of deaths from terrorism increased by 61% between 2012 and 2013, a study into international terrorism says.There were nearly 10,000 terrorist attacks in 2013, a 44% increase from the previous year, the Global Terrorism Index 2014 report added.

•The report said militant groups Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Taliban were behind most of the deaths.

•Iraq was the country most affected by terrorism, the report said.The report by the Institute for Economics and Peace says that nearly 18,000 people died from terrorist attacks in 2013.

•"Not only is the intensity of terrorism increasing, its breadth is increasing as well," it notes.Steve Killelea, IEP executive chairman, told the BBC the latest increase in deaths from terrorism was primarily due to the civil war in Syria, which began in 2011.

Looking forward to a peace loving World