The French are finally beating the Americans: Russia and France overtake US as top arms sellers

The USA has lost its role as the world’s top arms supplier. Last year, US arms deals fell from 9.4 billion dollars to about 6.2 billion.

Russia made seven billion dollars selling weaponry, an increase from 5.4 billion the year before.

France rose to second place, inking 6.3 billion dollars worth of deals for delivery of military hardware, up from just one billion dollars in 2004.

And the US has more to worry about. Congressional experts predict that an aggressive sales pitch by Paris could eventually collide with key interests of the United States and its allies as France usually pursues its national interests rather than NATO alliance considerations.

And please don’t use those stupid jokes about French military heroism in this context. It would be unfair to claim that France’s arms sales succes is due to “never used, dropped once white flag clearance specials”…

Source | French military victories

[tags]France,French military,arms sales,arms race[/tags]