Arms industry
[1] Such entities perform a wide variety of functions, including research and development, engineering, production, and servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities.
[4] In some regions of the world, there is a substantial legal trade in firearms for use by individuals (commonly cited purposes include self-defense and hunting/sporting).
[5] During the early modern period, England, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands became self-sufficient in arms production, with diffusion and migration of skilled workers to more peripheral countries such as Portugal and Russia.
[citation needed] The modern arms industry emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as a product of the creation and expansion of the first large military–industrial companies.
[citation needed] In 1854, the British government awarded a contract to the Elswick Ordnance Company to supply the latest loading artillery pieces.
[6][non-primary source needed] In 1884, he opened a shipyard at Elswick to specialize in warship production – at the time, it was the only factory in the world that could build a battleship and arm it completely.
[citation needed] In the American Civil War in 1861 the North had about ten times the manufacturing capacity of the economy of the Confederate States of America.
[citation needed] In 1885, France decided to capitalize on this increasingly lucrative trade and repealed its ban on weapon exports.
The regulatory framework for the period up to the First World War was characterized by a laissez-faire policy that placed little obstruction in the way of weapons exports.
International trade in handguns, machine guns, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other relatively inexpensive weapons is substantial.
There is relatively little regulation at the international level, and as a result, many weapons fall into the hands of organized crime, rebel forces, terrorists, or regimes under sanctions.
The top clients and major producers are virtually all located in the western world and Russia, with the United States easily in the first place.
Prominent aerospace firms include Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Saab AB, Dassault Aviation, Sukhoi, Mikoyan, EADS, Leonardo, Thales Group, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, and Boeing.
[10] Several of the world's great powers maintain substantial naval forces to provide a global presence, with the largest nations possessing aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and advanced anti-air defense systems.
There is also a large global market in second-hand naval vessels, generally purchased by developing countries from Western governments.
[12][13][better source needed] According to research institute SIPRI, the volume of international transfers of major weapons in 2010–14 was 16 percent higher than in 2005–2009.
[22] This is a list of the world's largest arms manufacturers and other military service companies who profit the most from the war economy, their origin is shown as well.
