Taps Coogan – March 22nd, 2022

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Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine kicked off, Russia was starting to lose ground in its arms export busines, as the following chart from Statista highlights. Russia was responsible for roughly 18.6% of global arms exports between 2017 and 2021, compared to 24.1% from 2012 through 2016.

Taking market share from Russia was primarily the US, which saw exports grow from 32.2% to 38.6% over the same time period and France, which has notably muscled into the Indian market with a slew of major deals for jets and associated weaponry. India has traditionally been the largest buyer of Russian weapons.

With the Ukrainian conflict churning out an endless stream of videos and photos showing even Russia’s most modern tanks and helicopters – along with an assortment of anti-air missile systems – destroyed by relatively cheap man-portable weapons and inexpensive drones, serious doubt is emerging about the tactical relevancy of the sort of weapon systems that make up the backbone of Russia’s arms exports.

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