- There is no dramatic increase, but it is a sector that is doing relatively well. Not in all countries and not for all companies, but there is still a demand for weapons in the world, says Pieter Wezeman, weapons industry expert at the Peace Research Institute Sipri.

The 100 largest companies' sales of weapons and military services amounted to $ 420 billion in 2018, or almost SEK 4 trillion. This is an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to Sipri. And then Chinese companies are not included in the statistics.

USA in the top

Of the 100 companies, 80 are based in the US and Europe plus Russia. For the first time since 2002, only US companies are on the top five list. Together, they accounted for 35 percent of total sales.

In place 30 is the only Swedish company on the list, Saab, whose sales landed at $ 3.2 billion - an increase of 4.8 percent from 2017.