American arms industry alone stood in 2018, 59 percent of the entire world våbenomsætning, shows the report.

the World's arms sales increased by almost five percent in 2018 compared to the year before. It shows a new report from the Swedish peace research institute Sipri published Monday.

the Turnover rate among the 100 largest arms producers reached last year eur 420 billion dollars - largely thanks to the us market, concludes the report.

U.s. manufacturers alone accounted for 59 percent of the world market or a turnover of 246 billion u.s. dollars. This is an increase of 7.2 percent compared to 2017.

- This is a significant increase over a year taken the already high level of us arms sales in the account, says Aude Fleurant, director of Sipris department for arms sales and military expenditure.

the American arms industry enjoys, among other well by president Donald Trumps decision to modernise the US military to strengthen its position against China and Russia.

Russia is number two on the list of the largest arms producers, with 8.6 percent of the market. Right after comes the Uk, which is 8.4 percent of world arms production, and then France with 5.5 percent.

the Study does not include China, as there was not sufficient data, but Sipri estimates that between three and seven chinese companies in the top 100 of the largest arms producers.

Two large european companies, Airbus and MBDA, can also feel the "demand due to the ongoing armed conflict and the serious tensions in several regions," says Aude Fleurant.

China has every year since 2013 spent 1.9 per cent of its gross domestic product (gdp) of the country's defense.

The top Russian company Almaz-Antey occupies a ninth place in the list with a turnover of 9.6 billion u.s. dollars in 2018 - this is an increase of 18 percent compared to the year before.

- This increase is due not only domestic demand, but also a continued growth in sales to other countries - especially exports of luftforsvarssystemet S-400, the report concludes.

One of the buyers of this system is Nato-member Turkey, which entered into an agreement with the russians, despite threats from the UNITED states on u.s. sanctions.

/ritzau/AFP