Washington: Western defence companies have made the biggest gains from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, claims a US website. A website named ‘Defense News’ made public the list of the top 100 highest-earning companies in the defence sector in 2022. Over 50 US companies are included in these, and the information has come to the fore about the business of just five of these major companies worth $196 billion. This ‘Defense News’ report became public when the United States announced new defence assistance of $200 billion for Ukraine.
Against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States and NATO member states began providing large amounts of arms assistance to Ukraine. It includes rifles, military vehicles, cannons, tanks, rocket systems, missiles and helicopters. So far, the United States has provided Ukraine with arms and defence assistance worth about $45 billion. The United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are believed to have supplied weapons worth about $20 billion to Ukraine. Other European countries claim to have given more than $5 billion in arms aid.
Most of the weapons and defence equipment provided by the US and European countries to Ukraine came from their existing stockpiles. Due to the arms assistance to Ukraine, the arms stockpile of European countries was decreasing quickly. Small Balkan and Baltic countries and countries like Germany and Poland have reported having weapons that would last only a few days. Current and former US officials and analysts have also expressed concern about the reduction in US arms assistance.
European countries have made billions of dollars worth of agreements with the United States to overcome this shortcoming. In such a situation, the US Defense Department is also granting contracts worth billions of dollars to the country’s defence companies to ‘update’ its weapons stockpile. Given the increasing threat from China and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States has increased its defence expenditure tremendously. It is steadily becoming clear that defence companies will get a major share of this.
Besides, ‘Defense News’ has released a list of the 100 biggest defence companies earning the highest income in the world. About 80 of these companies are from the United States and Europe. Of these, four of the five highest profit-making companies are from the United States and one from China. The US companies include Lockheed Martin, Radon, Northrop Grumman and Boeing. This year, the income of the world’s top companies has been $448 billion, and by the year 2026, this income will increase to $554 billion, according to the report of the US website.
Meanwhile, the US has announced $200 million in new defence aid for Ukraine, including HIMARS rocket systems and Patriot missiles.
