Weapons sales are driven by geopolitical affiliation, not by quality of weapons. How else to explain that Russia's arms exports fell by 53% between 2014-18 and 2019-23, and number of countries purchasing major arms dropped from 31 in 2019 to 12 in 2023.
After the SMO things will be quite different, and the measurements that you reference are not for nominal but rather relative sales. However, your overall point is correct.
Thank you for your very informative blog. Someone at the Andrei Martyanov blog point your blog to me.
I just wish to make one small correction.
"the famous English company Pratt and Whitney"
Pratt & Whitney is a US company. It has been based in Connecticut for 99 years.
Weapons sales are driven by geopolitical affiliation, not by quality of weapons. How else to explain that Russia's arms exports fell by 53% between 2014-18 and 2019-23, and number of countries purchasing major arms dropped from 31 in 2019 to 12 in 2023.
After the SMO things will be quite different, and the measurements that you reference are not for nominal but rather relative sales. However, your overall point is correct.
Great article,thanks!!!