United States military equipment sales to foreign governments grew 29% by 2024, reaching a record figure of $ 318.7 billion, the State Department said on Friday, with countries seeking to replace their inventories that were sent to Ukraine and preparing for great conflicts.
President Joe Biden’s last year’s government figures justify the most robust sales expectations of US gun manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, whose actions should rise amid global instability.
During his presidential campaign, Republican Donald Trump said US allies should spend more in defense. The president wants members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to spend 5% of his Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the sector, which would be a great growth in the current 2%. The requested level is not currently reached by any alliance country, not even by the US.
Arms sales and transfers are seen as “important US foreign policy tools, with long -term potential implications for regional and global security,” the state department said in a statement.
Sales approved by 2024 include $ 23 billion in F-16 fighters and improvements to Turkey, $ 18.8 billion in F-15 fighters for Israel and $ 2.5 billion M1A2 tanks to Romania.
Purchases approved in 2024 usually go to the US arms manufacturers’ order portfolio, which expects the results of the next quarters to be sustained by the sale of hundreds of thousands of artillery projectiles, hundreds of Patriot missile interceptors and the increase in the increase in Orders of armored vehicles.
