Page 37 - Five Forces of Americanisation Richard Hooke 04072025 final post SDR1

The UK Defence Industry in the 21 Century
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The Five Forces of Americanisation

The USA is the world’s biggest defence market and this provides defence manufacturers with the most
compelling motive for supplying the US military, routinely now locating operations there.

The Ten Countries with the Highest Military Expenditure in 2024
Rank Country 2023 % Share of world
expenditure GDP spending
(US$bn) (%)
1 USA 997 3.4 37
2 China 314 1.7 12
3 Russia 149 7.1 6.0
4 Germany 89 1.9 3.3
5 India 86 2.3 3.2
Sub-total: top 5 1635 60
6 UK 82 2.3 3.0
7 Saudi Arabia 80 7.3 3.0
8 Ukraine 65 34 2.4
9 France 65 2.1 2.4
10 Japan 55 1.4 2.0
1981 73

Spending figures and GDP are in US dollars, at current prices and exchange rates.
Italy, Iran, South Korea were among the top ten in 2003, replaced by Russia, India, Ukraine in 2023
Source: SIPRI 2025
It is worth noting at this point that, with the whole world apparently almost engulfed by conflict, the
US is consistently a principal actor. Its role is defined by its sheer power across all domains, old and
new, projected forcefully through a wide range of cultural and diplomatic means, backed up by
seemingly overwhelming military force used, at least until now, as a last resort. Yet, according to SIPRI,
“the Americas is the only region (in the world) not to have had a major armed conflict” in the last five
war-torn years. Its power is driven by its desire to remain a principal global actor: to influence world
events and protect or strengthen its interests overseas and to discourage, frustrate or prevent any
adversary from developing the means to threaten war on US soil. This means that being a US DoD
supplier offers access to some of the world’s largest defence export programmes.
Its capacity to maintain this position relies on its continuing investment in defence. Its ability to control
the international supply of military technology is a vital component, as is its capacity to act in coalition
forces with its allies. Interoperability might therefore present a dilemma for America First thinking.
Armed conflicts
by number of estimated conflict-related fatalities, 2023

Source: SIPRI 2024
Twenty years ago, the US Foreign Military Sales (“FMS”) programme was seen as an important
component of this, itself part of a wider programme that included International Military Education &

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