(Stockholm, 9 March 2026) The volume of major arms transferred between states increased by 9.2 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25. States in Europe more than trebled their arms imports, making it the biggest recipient region. Total exports by the United States, the world’s largest supplier of arms, increased by 27 per cent. This included a 217 per cent increase in US arms exports to Europe, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), available at www.sipri.org.
The increase in global arms flows was the biggest since 2011–15. It was overwhelmingly due to the growth in transfers to Ukraine (which received 9.7 per cent of all arms transfers in 2021–25) and other European states. Besides Europe and the Americas, arms imports to all other world regions decreased.
‘While tensions and conflicts in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East continue to drive large-scale arms imports, the sharp increase in arms flows to European states pushed global arms transfers up almost 10 per cent,’ said Mathew George, Director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. ‘Deliveries to Ukraine since 2022 are the most obvious factor, but most other European states have also started importing significantly more arms to shore up their military capabilities against a perceived growing threat from Russia.’