2018 Global Defense Spending Is Largest Ever, Says SIPRI

The United States remained the world’s largest spender on defense in 2018, deploying more money for weapons than the next eight countries combined. Russia’s defense spending has fallen for the second year in a row.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual report on world defense spending also said Russia has fallen out of the top five in world defense spending.

SIPRI said Russia was the sixth-largest nation in military spending in 2018, at $61.4 billion. This figure is 3.5 percent lower compared to 2017. It said the new decrease comes after a period of expansion.

“Russia’s major military modernization program, which started in 2010, led to significant annual increases in military spending (between 4.9% and 16%) through 2015. Starting in 2016 Russia’s military budget has trended downwards.”

SIPRI revealed that Russian defense spending would have fallen 11 percent in 2016 if it weren’t for a one-off government debt repayment of $11.8 billion to Russian arms producers that year.

“The payment also explains a large part of the sharp 19% drop in 2017: excluding the repayment, spending would have decreased by 2.8%,” said SIPRI.

SIPRI said global defense spending soared to $1.82 trillion in 2018, a 2.6 increase over 2017 and the highest figure since 1988, the first year reliable global data was available.

The United States remains the world's biggest military spender. In 2018, the U.S. boosted defense spending for the first time in seven years to $649 billion. It spent almost as much on defense in 2018 as the next eight countries combined.

"They are in the midst of implementing a military modernization program over the next 20 to 25 years, which some analysts say will cost the $1.8 trillion," Nan Tian, a researcher for the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program, told CNN.

The modernization program agreed upon in the final year of the Obama administration will continue military spending increases in the U.S. in the coming years.

China remains the world's second largest spender, and increased spending by 5% to $250 billion in 2018. The country accounted for 14% of global defense expenditures last year, said SIPRI.

The next top defense spenders: Saudi Arabia ($67.6 billion), India ($66.5 billion), France ($63.8 billion), Russia ($61.4 billion) and the United Kingdom ($50 billion).

The U.S. and China now account for almost half of the world's military expenditure, said SIPRI.