Military spending around the world increased four per cent last year to reach an unprecedented high of $1,464 billion/ £914 billion. The increase for the period 1999-2008, Swedish organisation Sipri (the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) added, was 45 per cent.

While, then, the airline industry is not doing so well, the defence industry is flourishing, with the world's economic downturn yet to strike it hard. "The global financial crisis has yet to have an impact on major arms companies' revenues, profits and order backlogs", Sipri stated.

A further rise was recorded in the number of peace operations in action around the world in 2008, which increased 11 per cent and which focused on areas including DR Congo and Darfur. In all, over 187,000 people around the world were engaged in peace-keeping operations, said Sipri, adding this also represented a new high.

Global Arms Sales

Overall, the world's dominant 100 arms manufacturers made global arms sales totalling $347 billion in 2007 (2007, since accurate figures for 2008 have not yet emerged). The vast majority of these 100 firms were European or US-based, although Russia, Israel, India and Japan were also represented.

"Since 2002, the value of the top 100 arms sales has increased by 37% in real terms", explained Sipri.

More arms were sold by Boeing than by anyone else - it racked up a total of $30.5 billion. UK defence firm BAE System came in just behind them, with $29.9 billion worth of arms sold, and Lockheed Martin claimed third place with $29.4 billion.

Here's the top ten list, including the three above-mentioned firms, plus the other seven that dominated global arms sales in 2007:

• Boeing, which sold $30.5bn
• BAE Systems, which sold $29.9bn
• Lockheed Martin, which sold $29.4bn
• Northrop Grumman, which sold $24.6bn
• General Dynamics, which sold $21.5bn
• Raytheon, which sold $19.5bn
• EADS (West Europe), which sold $13.1bn
• L-3 Communications, which sold $11.2bn
• Finmeccanica, which sold $9.9bn
• Thales, which sold $9.4bn

Global Arms Spending

The US also bought the majority of the arms sold in 2008, although Russia and China both upped their spending considerably. Again, here's the top ten for global arms spending, according to Sipri:

• The USA, which spent $607bn
• China, which spent $84.9bn
• France, which spent $65.74bn
• The UK, which spent $65.35bn
• Russia, which spent $58.6bn
• Germany, which spent $46.87bn
• Japan, which spent $46.38bn
• Italy, which spent $40.69bn
• Saudi Arabia, which spent $38.2bn
• India, which spent $30.0bn

While US arms spending for 2008 was up ten per cent on 2007, the report suggested that the introduction of the new, Obama government would likely result in more moderate increases in future years.

Next week sees the biannual Paris Air Show - one of the world's major aerospace events. Here, defence technology is expected to loom large over air travel.