The US tripled its military arms sales in 2011 to $66.3 billion, comprising more than three-quarters of the global arms market. The sales rate significantly outpaced Russia, whose $4.8 billion in sales represented the second-largest rate, according to a report in the New York Times.
The rate was over a 200 percent jump from the 2010 figures, and represents a significant increase from the previous high of $31 billion in 2010. The uptick has been attributed to increased sales to numerous Gulf states wary of Iran’s increasingly militaristic rhetoric, according to the paper. Much of the sales, annotated by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, focused on both warplanes and missile shields.
