And though the Ukrainian Defense Industry, formerly known as Ukroboronprom, declined to explain the significant increase, it is telling that the company’s defense revenue grew from about $755 million in FY21 to nearly $1.3 billion in FY22, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Most recently, for FY23, the firm is reporting $2.2 billion in defense revenue.

In fact, more than three-quarters of the companies on this year’s Top 100 list saw their defense revenues rise.

This is reflective of the list’s general — although inconsistent — increase year over year. Looking at just the last five fiscal years, the total defense revenue for those ranked came to:

• FY19: $524.4 billion
• FY20: $551.2 billion
• FY21: $595 billion
• FY22: $533.9 billion
• FY23: $603.9 billion

The latest growth – by 13% – comes amid the Russia-Ukraine war; Israel’s fight with the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its clashes with the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah; as well as tension in the Asia-Pacific region over disputed territory and Taiwan’s independence.

In response to these events, governments around the world are spending more on defense, which in turn boosts industry earnings.

Deeper dive

U.S.-based businesses dominated the rankings with 48 listings, followed by:

• China and the United Kingdom, each with six.
• Germany and Turkey, each with five.
• Israel and South Korea, each with three.
• India, Italy, Norway and Spain, each with two.
• Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden and Ukraine, each with one.
• Alone, France has four listings, and the Netherlands has one. However, it would be accurate to give them each one more in this count because Airbus lists its “main office” in the former and its “headquarters” in the latter.

There are notable gaps in this year’s list. Once again, there are no Russian businesses because they did not respond to our requests for information and we could not locate reputable data sources.

Japanese companies are also not on the list. Defense News contacted the businesses, as well as government officials, several times with requests for data. The government did not publish the relevant information online by press time.

Some private firms that likely earn significant defense revenue, such as General Atomics, opt against providing data, while technology companies, including Amazon and Google, don’t offer comprehensive information on their defense revenue and declined to do so for the list.

We also chose not to include medical and pharmaceutical companies because the list is meant to focus on those organizations producing weapons systems, military capabilities and associated technologies.

For Chinese businesses, we relied on a think tank to provide the data. The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. did not release figures for consideration in this year’s list by press time. The state-run organization last made the rankings two years ago, where it landed in 14th place with more than $13 billion in defense revenue for FY21.

This year we were able to collect information for two Indian companies. However, our correspondent there remains jailed. It has been almost a year since the Indian government arrested Vivek Raghuvanshi, a longtime freelance journalist with Defense News, and officials have declined to provide information about his safety, legal representation and allegations.

For ranked Turkish firms, an asterisk must be applied: Some revenue figures were calculated using so-called inflation accounting methods due to the nation’s high inflation rate. We used those numbers when they were provided; otherwise the data was run in its unadapted form. More information is provided in the footnotes.

We hope this list, which one could accurately describe as part art and part science, offers a snapshot of the state of the defense industry and perhaps what’s to come.

Click here to see the Top 100, a ranking of the largest defense companies in the world.

Indeed, both countries have experienced heavy losses in life and materiel during the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. There’s now a growing sense this conflict has reached a stalemate, and that it will likely continue through the year, according to a report released this month by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The London-based think tank also recently updated its Military Balance+ database, which assesses the defense capabilities of militaries around the world. The following compares select system types and data points between Russia and Ukraine, based on data from IISS, with footnotes at the bottom of this article. The data is current as of November, meaning it accounts for nearly two years of war.

• Data as of November 2023.
• Armored Fighting Vehicles are armored combat vehicles with a combat weight of at least 6 metric tons.
• Artillery includes guns, howitzers, rocket launchers and mortars with a caliber greater than 100mm for artillery pieces and 80mm and above for mortars, capable of engaging ground targets with indirect fire.
• Surface-to-Surface Missile Launchers are launch vehicles for transporting and firing surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles.
• Air Defense includes guns, directed-energy weapons and surface-to-air missile launchers designed to engage fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.

The London-based think tank released its take on the region’s balance of power, noting the growth in arms could boost deterrence against potential Chinese military offensives.

China has in recent years stepped up military activity around neighboring Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue province and has threatened to take back by force. While the United States officially maintains its one-China policy, it also provides arms to the island nation.

“That’s been our policy for as long as I can remember, and it remains our policy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday. “And again, it’s a policy that ensures to the best of our ability that we have peace, that we have stability, that we don’t have a status quo that’s disrupted in ways that are going to have repercussions for everyone around the world.”

As a means of ensuring regional stability, the report specifically pointed to the U.S. Air Force’s B-21 Raider, a bomber currently in development by Northrop Grumman.

The first Raider, unveiled a little over a year ago, flew to Edwards Air Force Base, California, in November 2023 to undergo flight testing. Initial delivery to the service is expected in the mid-2020s.

The IISS report offered four possible basing locations for the B-21 in the Asia-Pacific — one in Guam and three in Australia — based on its own analysis, information from the U.S. and Australian militaries, and Lockheed Martin.

In addition, a variant of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile, dubbed AGM-158D JASSM-XR, with a range of up to about 1,118 miles, is scheduled to begin delivery in February 2027, the report noted.

“Designed to defeat modern air-defence systems and attack fixed targets, the JASSM and its variants can be launched from most USAF-crewed combat aircraft but are particularly potent when launched from long-range bombers,” it stated. “The prospect that the future B-21 Raider very low-observable bomber might also be equipped with variants of the JASSM will also potentially significantly extend the USAF’s ability to project power at long ranges while remaining undetected.”

Here’s the reach these scenarios provide the U.S. Air Force:

So what comes next?

This edition of Defense News’ Outlook project offers several forecasts for the year ahead. It includes interviews, essays and forward-looking articles, plus an infographic that details major U.S. defense contracts on the horizon.

The authors and interviewees cover some of the most significant issues, including the civil war in Yemen, the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the state of America’s workforce and more.

Radha Plumb, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, is focused on expanding the department’s suppliers at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, Russia is digging in for a long war in Ukraine by ramping up production within its own defense-industrial base, according to two analysts with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The West must follow suit, they say.

Similarly, it’s up to likeminded nations to work together, lest the international rules-based order fall apart, Lithuania’s defense minister argues in his essay.

And then there’s the matter of Sino-U.S. relations. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs a House panel focused on China, tells Defense News deterring aggression in the Indo-Pacific region should be the priority, closely followed by support for Ukraine and Israel.

For its part, Australia is focused on regional security, although its minister for the domestic defense industry says the nation must prepare for the possibility of war — yet another in 2024.

These commentaries and more are available here.

The signatories to the government-to-government agreement for the Spike missiles were Eyal Zamir, director general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, and Aristeidis Alexopulos, head of Greece’s General Directorate for Defense Investments and Armaments, according to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which makes the weapon.

“This project joins a series of agreements between the State of Israel and the Hellenic Republic, and further emphasizes the strong partnership between our countries and our defense establishments, as well as our mutual commitment to ensuring regional stability,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement distributed by Rafael.

The sale follows last week’s purchase of the Israeli-made air defense system David’s Sling by Finland, which recently joined Greece as a NATO member. Israel’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate, which is part of the Defense Ministry, led the agreement for the export of the naval-, air- and land-based missiles.

Spike weapons comes in several variants and include electro-optical technology for precise targeting. Rafael’s website says 39 nations use the weapon, and that it has sold about 30,000 missiles, which can fire from 45 different platforms.

Of those users, 19 are members of the EU and/or NATO.

“This agreement with the Hellenic Ministry of National Defense is yet another expression of the strategic partnership between Israel and Greece. It is part of a series of agreements worth billions of shekels which we have signed in the last two years, including the recent update of the Greek Air Force Pilot Training Center’s capabilities,” Zamir said in the Rafael statement.

Anti-tank missiles are among the weapons proving popular in Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

For its part, Greece has committed €19 million in military aid to Ukraine from Jan. 24, 2022, to February 24, 2023, according to the Kiel Institute, which tracks support to the war-torn country.

Additionally, 13,287 civilians were injured over the past 12 months, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights found. Explosive weapons — including artillery shells, airstrikes, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles — caused about 90.3% of civilian casualties, the office added.

As Ukraine continues to bolster its forces with Western arms, Moscow is using unorthodox methods to depreciate Kyiv’s military prowess. On Feb. 24, 2022, Defense News published information on the weapons inventories of Russia and Ukraine, based on data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance+ database. The following is an updated version, with footnotes at the bottom of this article.

• Data as of November 2022.
• Armored Fighting Vehicles are armored combat vehicles with a combat weight of at least 6 metric tons.
• Surface-to-Surface Missile Launchers are launch vehicles for transporting and firing surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles.
• Artillery is made up of weapons — such as guns, howitzers, multiple-rocket launchers and mortars — with a caliber greater than 100mm for artillery pieces and 80mm and above for mortars, capable of engaging ground targets with indirect fire.
• Air Defense includes guns, directed-energy weapons and surface-to-air missile launchers designed to engage fixed-wing, rotary-wing and uninhabited aircraft. Systems primarily intended to intercept missiles rather than aircraft are excluded.

All have taken a toll on the global economy, creating ripple effects for the defense industry and its labor force.

How to cope with this volatile economy is a key focus for the participants in this year’s Outlook project.

This edition, which offers forecasts for 2023 from representatives across the globe, differs from our previous approach. You’ll still hear from government and military leaders, industry executives, and analysts, but the essays are now accompanied by one-on-one interviews, forward-looking articles and infographics.

The writers are concerned about a range of topics — from inflation to defense budgets to supply chain security — and they discuss how to solve these issues.

Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, talked about the future of the war-torn nation’s defense industry when Russia’s invasion ends.

Meanwhile, Poland’s defense minister is determined to exceed NATO’s target — that each alliance member spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense — as a way for the country to modernize its armed forces.

Poland’s recent spending spree included deals for South Korean systems (FA-50 fighter jets, K2 Black Panther tanks, K9 Thunder howitzers, K10 resupply vehicles and K239 Chunmoo multiple-rocket launchers), and the European nation leased a set of MQ-9A Reaper drones from American company General Atomics.

For the U.S. Navy’s top civilian, Carlos Del Toro, economics and national security go hand in hand. This, he said, will come in the form of supporting allies and partners abroad, deterring China from trespassing on exclusive economic zones, and addressing quality-of-life issues for service members amid rising inflation.

And on the issue of sustainability, Amentum CEO John Heller warned of a “perfect storm” that the world can still fight off through investments in energy efficiency.

Our reporting in this Outlook edition speaks to each domain of warfare: The U.S. Air Force is getting a new bomber, and that means changes are coming to the service’s existing fleet. The U.S. Army is moving toward another phase as it seeks to replace the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The U.S. Navy’s secretive Project Overmatch is headed for deployment at sea. Plus, America’s dominance in space was no easy task, as seen through the lens of the Space Development Agency; and there’s more to be done.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and quantum computing are among NATO’s top acquisition priorities for the new year.

So what to expect in 2023?

If last month’s G20 summit — a meeting of some of the world’s largest economies — is any indication, count on more transitions to clean energy, efforts to recover from the coronavirus and updates to agricultural trade rules.

And consider the summit’s final declaration, which said “most members strongly condemned” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That ongoing divergence of opinion over a war — one that triggered sanctions, higher food prices and a ramp-up of defense production — will likely further roil the global economy for the year to come.

Palmer Luckey, who helped design the virtual reality set Oculus Rift, opened Irvine, California-based Anduril in 2017. The company specializes in software development and artificial intelligence.

This latest funding increase — dubbed “Series E” — is credited with “nearly doubling the company’s previous valuation in June 2021,” the company said in a statement. Startup firms go through a series of funding, with what is generally the first or second round dubbed Series A.

Series A money is meant to help pay employees, optimize a startup’s products and develop a marketing strategy, according to the employment website Indeed. If a company survives a period of six months to two years with that early funding, it can then seek Series B funding, and so on.

“The new funding will enable Anduril to accelerate research and development to bring new, cutting edge, autonomous defense capabilities to the market and continue to mature and scale its current business lines with the U.S. Department of Defense as well as U.S. allies and partners,” the company said. “Anduril is building software-defined and hardware-enabled capabilities that solve mission needs with autonomy, today. Autonomous systems will enable the military to operate faster and at greater scale across both tactical and strategic operations.”

The funding was led by Valor Equity Partners, which previously invested in Anduril, with participation from Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, 8VC, Lux Capital, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth, Elad Gil, Lachy Groom, Human Capital, Marlinspike, WCM Investment Management, MVP Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures and the US Innovative Technology Fund.

Anduril won a $1 billion contract in January from U.S. Special Operations Command to lead its counter-drone systems integration work. And it’s part of a team lead by American Rheinmetall Vehicles that’s competing to build a replacement for the U.S. Army’s Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.

The White House wants to retire one of those, the B83 megaton gravity bomb. But the Senate’s version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act prevents that from happening until the chamber receives a report on alternatives for striking “hard and deeply buried targets.”

The other investment — the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear development program — is to receive $45 million for research and development under a House version of the NDAA. But that same chamber’s defense appropriations bill defunds the weapon program, as requested by President Joe Biden. For its part, the Senate’s defense appropriations bill provides $25 million for the weapon.

And all of this is occurring as the Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. will spend $634 billion on nuclear forces during the 2021-2030 time frame.

Still, the country’s nuclear warhead inventory fell from January 2021 to January 2022, according to an annual report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The Swedish think tank also found global military spending rose for the seventh consecutive year in 2021.

Here’s a snapshot from that report of military spending by region and warhead inventories by country:

• ( ) = uncertain estimate
• Spending figures are in U.S. dollars, at current prices and exchange rates. Changes are in real terms, based on constant (2020) U.S. dollars.

• * = Reported as zero or negligible value
• N/A = not applicable or not available
• [ ] = uncertain figure
• Deployed warheads are those placed on missiles or located on bases with operational forces.
• Stored warheads are those in central storage that would require some preparation before they could become fully operationally available.
• Other warheads are typically those retired and awaiting dismantlement. The latest U.S. and Russian figures in this category are those warheads awaiting dismantlement. The latest U.K. figure represents retired warheads that have not yet been dismantled and could likely be reconstituted to become part of the nation’s total stockpile over the coming years.
• Totals from last year do not include figures for North Korea and are rounded to the nearest five warheads. Previous calculations about North Korea’s warhead inventory referred to the number of nuclear warheads the nation could potentially build with the amount of fissile material it produced. The latest figures represent an estimate of the warheads North Korea has assembled.

Narendra Modi told Vladimir Putin by phone “the differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue,” according to a news release by India’s Ministry of External Affairs. The conversation between the two leaders came hours after the Ukraine envoy in New Delhi urged Modi to contact Putin, saying the country “has a special relationship with Russia and New Delhi can play a more active role in controlling the situation.”

The arms trade makes up part of that “special relationship.” An October report by the Congressional Research Service found that, from 2016 to 2020, India accounted for 23% of Russia’s total arms exports, while Russia provided 49% of Indian imports.

Here are some major Russian weapons sales and deliveries to India during that time period, courtesy of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute:

• AEW: Airborne early-warning
• AEW&C: Airborne early-warning and control
• ASM: Air-to-surface missile
• ASW: Anti-submarine warfare
• BVRAAM: Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile
• FGA: Fighter/ground attack
• IFV: Infantry fighting vehicle
• MRL: Multiple rocket launcher
• SAM: Surface-to-air missile
• SSM: Surface-to-surface missile

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Graphic by Jacki Belker/Staff. Images by Denis Sinyakov/AFP via Getty Images, STR/AFP via Getty Images, and Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/U.S. Air Force.