Saudi Arabia was the second largest arms importer in the world between 2011 and 2015, and the United States was the world’s largest exporter by far during the same period, according to a comprehensive annual report on arms transfers between states by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI.)
The United States exported 33% of all arms in the world, according to SIPRI.
Saudi Arabia was the largest recipient of U.S. arms with almost one third, 9.7%, of all U.S. arms outflows. Closely behind Saudi Arabia in purchases from the U.S. was the UAE, a key ally to both states, and Turkey after that.
The increase of arms transfers to Saudi Arabia represents a decade-long trend for the country. For the 2011-2015 period Saudi weapons imports increased 275% compared to 2006–10. In the same period, arms imports by the United Arab Emirates rose by 35% and those by Qatar went up by 279%.
At the regional level, the Middle East was the largest recipient of US weapons, accounting for 41% of arms exports, SIPRI notes. Arms imports by all states in the Middle East rose by 61% between 2006–10 and 2011–15.
The top 5 recipients— India, Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE and Australia—accounted for 34% of the total arms imports during the period.
Egypt’s arms imports increased by 37% between the 2006–10 and 2011–15 time frames, primarily due to a steep rise in 2015.
The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database contains information on all international transfers of major conventional weapons (including sales, gifts and production licences) to states, international organizations and armed non-state groups from 1950 to the most recent full calendar year. SIPRI data reflects the volume of deliveries of arms, not the financial value of the deals. As the volume of deliveries can fluctuate significantly year on year, SIPRI presents data for 5-year periods, giving a more stable measure of trends.
