‘Arms sales up despite crisis’

A Stockholm based peace research group says the financial crisis hardly made a dent in the arms industry, with weapons sales growing 4% to $401 billion in 2009.

A Stockholm based peace research group says the financial crisis hardly made a dent in the arms industry, with weapons sales growing 4% to $401 billion in 2009.

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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, says US-based Lockheed Martin Corp. overtook Britain’s BAE Systems to become the world’s biggest arms vendor.

SIPRI’s annual statistics on the arms industry showed there were six other US companies in the top 10. Monday’s report also said out of the 100 biggest arms vendors, 78 were based in the US or Western Europe.