War in Ukraine: who benefits from arms sales?

American shells leaving for Ukraine, and European weapons in the hands of Ukrainian fighters: in a context of growing tension on a global scale, the arms market is flourishing. However, the world did not wait for the war in Ukraine to rearm. In 2021, global military spending reached 190 billion euros, a record. The United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia are in the lead. With the urgency of the war, the West took weapons from the stockpile in order to help Ukraine.

The United States provided 4.3 billion euros in military assistance in the first month of the conflict, and is offering another 19 billion. However, this spending effort has an interest. “That of arms sales. Europe was already one of their biggest export markets, if Europe rearms, it is quite logical that it should be primarily with American manufacturers”, analyzes Vincent Lamigeon, defense specialist at Challenges. On the world market, France is the third largest arms exporter, behind the United States and Russia.