In a turnaround from previous years, the United Kingdom’s defence exports saw a significant surge in 2022, reaching £11.2 billion, a substantial increase from the £6.6 billion recorded in 2021.
This is a 70% growth in nominal prices.
The surge in defence exports in 2022 is largely attributed to new contracts in the Middle East and Europe, coupled with significant exports of helicopters to Canada.
Over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, the UK’s annual defence orders have averaged £10.0 billion. This steady performance is underpinned by the aerospace sector, which accounts for approximately 68% of the value of UK defence exports during this period.
The variability inherent in defence exports, often influenced by large orders and contract awards, is evident in these figures.
The Middle East emerges as the most significant market for the UK’s defence exports, accounting for an average of 43% of the total value of orders from 2018 to 2022. Despite a decline in orders since 2019, the region remains a key area of focus for UK defence companies.
“The Middle East was on average the largest market for UK defence export orders over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, accounting for an average of 43% of the total value of orders across that period. Five-year moving average exports in the Middle East have shown a decline since 2019, reflecting a drop in in-year orders following large contracts in 2018 of Typhoon Aircraft and Brimstone Missiles to Qatar.
Five-year average exports to Europe increased from £0.8 billion in 2018 to £2.2 billion in 2022, overtaking those to North America in 2020. Most exports to Ukraine in 2022 are not counted here as they have mostly been committed as part of a military assistance package following Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Further details of Ukraine exports and UK military support can be found in Section 11.”
In Europe, the average exports increased markedly from £0.8 billion in 2018 to £2.2 billion in 2022, reflecting the UK’s expanding influence in the European defence market. Notably, most exports to Ukraine in 2022 have been committed as part of a military assistance package and are not included in these figures.
The aerospace sector continues to dominate the UK’s defence exports, comprising 68% of the total value of orders from 2018 to 2022.
In comparison to global trends, the UK’s defence exports show distinctive patterns. Data from the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK Ministry of Defence, NATO, and other sources reveal diverse trends in defence exports worldwide.
However, due to differences in data collection methodologies, comparisons between UK exports and those of other countries should be approached with caution.
This article is based on information from the UK Government’s report on defence exports and includes data and insights from various sources cited by the UK Defence and Security Exports survey.
If the RAF was funded for a tranche of say 36 new Typhoon with the latest radar fit then that might trigger further interest in Typhoon from other foreign buyers. Plus the RAF needs more typhoon, especially if the foolish idea of scrapping or selling off tranche 1 aircraft goes ahead.
Maybe the New minimum number for MOD are only 100 aircraft , never ending cuts , you never know.
But ever increaing capability. And that’s what really counts
One plataform can only be located in one place, a mínimum number of platforms is dangerous as it doesn,t alllow to defend all areas at the same time.
Any extra.money should make sure we buy enough Tempest when it arrives and buying enough F35B for both carriers would be a better boost for our overall military capability. Unlocking the Saudi order via Germany, and supposed Turkish interest in Typhoon hopefully happens.
I don’t think we could let Turkey have the latest radar fit after the S400 debacle.
Ergodan will do whatever suits him in his moment of crisis, continuous, so if that means costing up to China or Putin then he will.
This is why with Tempest we have to go USA style in it with us in control and T1 & T2 partners with no export vetos.
Thing is we have the radar, engine and flight controls tech all we need is some £££££ and sure we share scraps of the lower tech manufacturing.
Turkey did the same thing decades ago when it bought S300 so the S400 issue is nothing new. At the time we did some interesting “loitering” on a B2 T22 in international waters when Turkey was testing there S300 just after they bought it.
The issue is the Turkish and Saudi orders won’t be enough to keep the assembly line ticking until Tempest. Production rate was 16 a year until 2019 when the last were delivered, and 8 a year for the Qatari aircraft. Turkey wants their aircraft quickly as they are an interim before the Tai Kaan enters service, hence why their potential order will be split between Spain and the UK. Saudi aren’t so pressed for time, but they won’t wait until 2033 for the last of their 48, especially after the delays due to the Germans so far. We are at… Read more »
Theres also the new Italian order coming on top of the Spanish and German top ups.
Those don’t have final assembly here though. The German and Spanish orders will wrap up before 2030.
Italy isn’t buying more Typhoons.
Gareth Jennings tweeted recently he was hearing they were looking at 24 more, guess we can wait and see.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1722226471866130453
I posted a link but it seems to be stuck with the mods, but Gareth Jennings was tweeting recently that he was hearing rumours about an Italian buy of 24?
The Italian Air Force denied it, Italy doesn’t have enough money for another batch right now.
From what I read the Turks seem to be looking for second hand Typhoons, which makes sense to fill in their gap till the Tai Kazan comes in. Might perhaps allow new Typhoons to be produced as an indirect result perhaps, if rather less than the number supplied if things work as usual. Solves the technical concerns SB has I guess. In that regard I wonder what dangers there are in respect of the Tai Kazan technology transfer, it’s only been mentioned in generalised terms as far as I know.
That’s what I saw as well. Both Spain and the RAF are retiring T1 Typhoons so makes sense. I am however sceptical that Turkey will buy aircraft with no air to ground capability that can’t even carry meteor, even if its just interim. Ideally they’d buy T2s or T3s off the RAF, allowing the RAF to buy the same number of T3s or T4s.
Quite right we have huge gap in fast jet production, this would not be tolerated if it were RN ships. Making parts is not the same as assembly and commissioning an entire airframe. If the next government is going to give up on global Britain then logically we can reduce the F35B order and buy F35A and with the 30m per airframe saving buy some more Typhoons. Then sell off T1 and possibly T2s instead of upgrading replace with new. This also supports the policy of aligning with EU defence projects as we support Typhoon sub assembly manufacture within the… Read more »
An assembly line can be paused though, so as long as we’re building parts it’s not the end of the world. Labour have already said they won’t give up on East of Suez for the military. There isn’t any point in splitting the order anyway. 27 F35Bs to As only saves around 600 million so would buy a handful of Typhoons. Not having an F35 final assembly line is a major missed opportunity, and if Typhoon final assembly does come to an end after Qatars order is finished in 2024, will be something that is deeply regretted, and will be… Read more »
The problem is assembly will pause indefinitely. Tempest production will.only start in ernest in mid 2030s. There little doubt in my mind as a manufacturing engineer there will be at minimum skill fade but more likely complete loss of skills to assemble and commission a fast jet. I see skill fade with in months of not manufacturing so years us going to be a massive issue. Where have labour said they will not give up on east of Suez. Please share this. I google Labour & KSA arms deals and had some interesting results. However I think Labour’s plan to… Read more »
It was in the Labour Party conference that Healey said Indo Pacific commitments would be strengthened, along with AUKUS. Defence is rarely about capabilities when it comes to defence. The carriers are too symbolic to harm. Splitting the F35 fleet would cost a huge amount, and reduce overall numbers in the frontline fleet. It barely saves any money- £637.2m on old prices, it will be even less when the contract is signed. That’s a rounding error. Spains £1.96b deal in todays money buys 20 Eurofighters, Germanys deal was £5.5b for 38. Based on Spains deal it would be 6.5 Typhoons,… Read more »
I would love to be right Mr B but we’ll be lucky to keep the one’s we’ve got.
Aye all perfectly reasonable Mr B and I agree would be splendid if we got them however if the Block 17 software upgrades that are going to be coming on F35 from 2025 are anything to go by they are exponential mind blowing improvements over the current sensor suite. The 20 additional electronic warfare receivers alone put things into the mother of all brothers of unmatched situational awareness. now granted it ain’t here yet but if it does for the F35 what they say it does then even the best gen 4.5 efforts gonna be light years behind. either way… Read more »
This is great news though the figure would be even higher if the Germans werent blocking an order for typhoon jets to Saudi
Also blocking Turkey now even though it’s a NATO ally. Heaven help anyone who partners with Germany on another fighter, it’s been the albatross of the euro fighter program.
Given what Turkey has been up to is it really surprising that they are facing a block, I mean they were already blocked from the F35. Maybe it might pressure them to accept Sweden into NATO?
And the US Congress won’t let them have the new F-16s and F-16 upgrades they desperately need unless they approve Sweden’s entry into NATO.
Also why the Typhoon option has arisen be it to fill the gap or put pressure on the US for the F-16. The US isn’t likely to be happy if it’s to get around the F-16 block and not great for us and NATO if it takes pressure off of them re the Sweden Block. We need Sweden in NATO if only to stop Putin making a miscalculation in attacking it thinking they are immune from a NATO response. I suspect NATO or many Countries within would have to go to its aid however. So dangerous game Turkey is playing.
There’s perhaps logic in Germany blocking Typhoon orders, they will have their final assemble running longer than the UKs due to domestic orders. Once we’ve shuttered or mothballed our final assembly its likely German will have the only final assembly line left running allowing then to corner any future exports.
Not just Typhoon. Germany got all lairy over the Tonkas spares that the Saudis needed and refused to ship them as well.
I do have a conflicting view on this. On one hand, I don’t think we should be selling Eurofighter to Turkey or Saudi. However, if we insist on selling to them, it should be an inferior version. Also, if Germany does insist on blocking deals, they should pay out compensation to the partners. I told you it would be conflicting.
When it comes to selling dumbed down versions it only works if no one else is willing to sell them a better product.
The US isn’t willing to sell the most up-to-date F-16s at the moment. Maybe they will sell them upgrade kits. Also, I don’t think Greece would be happy if France sold Turkey the Rafale.
Kuwait have an export version of the Typhoon.
Typhoon has been exported to Kuwait – it’s not an inferior Model,far from it.
What radar does it have and what radar will ge fitted to uk Typhoons?
They have the Captor-E which makes them the most ( with the Qatari order )advanced standard sold so far,RAF examples use the Captor-M,only with the ECRS MK2 upgrade will they be of a similar or superior standard.
Our military exports are now very narrowly based, dominated by big aircraft orders. For land equipment, our industrial capability has declined to the extent we are now a subcontractor rather than an OEM. To see the full picture, I would like to see a breakdown of military imports. This would make clear just how dependent on others we have become eg * new machine guns from Belgium * new tank guns from Germany * all guns for new warships from Sweden or the US * CTA 40 from France * Marine diesel engines from Germany * Engines and gearboxes for… Read more »
CTA was a 50 50 split for BAE and Nexter. BAE didn’t have a facility like Nexter for cannon production. There are 3 other medium calibre cannons that Nexter is producing. BAE built RARDEN for a short period of time between 1992-1995 and hasn’t built a medium calibre cannon since. It’s all well and good wanting domestic production, but for 515 cannons it didn’t make sense.
Manroy engineering makes GPMG in the UK.
Ajax engines are built in the UK.
The best news in decades for land industry is that Boxer exports will be focussed from the UK.
,
Boxer MTU engines are to be assembled in UK with German supplied components. MTU engines for Ajax are manufactured in Germany.
The best we will be able to do in future across a wide range of equipment is insist on a certain level of local production.
Overall, I don’t see many signs of the vaunted land industrial strategy.
My concern is that now that our land industrial base at core is in the hands of the Germans there is little pressure for British capabilities and even less for British originated and designed products to come into being whatever the political or indeed commercial desire for that, so direct British capabilities in these sectors will stagnate and potentially even decline, either way it’s not easily rectified whatever the desire to do so down the line. MTU are in control of the design of their engines, Bofors the design of their guns Hagglunds control over cv90 design and development despite… Read more »
Our problem is we don’t create products that are saleable, the requirements set are often too niche and bespoke and therefore don’t fit the export market or are to expensive. Its no good us design anything new unless we are going to ensure its a product that others want. This means as well as asking the MoD what they want this needs to be tempered with some market research to find out what elements make a good IFV or Tank etc. The upside of a bit of compromise is exports which = more orders = cheaper product for the MoD… Read more »
MTU engines for both Boxer and Ajax are built in the UK by Rolls Royce at East Grinstead, alongside other MTU engines for trains etc.
deleted. (I had commented before reading Louis above, which already answered my question).
Good to paint the true picture. However it’s also true to take a lateral view of that too. Like others Countries and competitors now insisting on technology transfer in doing business, this may allow us to re establish future design, engineering and production of future products but equally it highlights our failure in the past to have a joined up thinking process of development and orders making design and production of those products here in recent decades. The argument for it being pointless retaining the capacity for medium calibre cannon on the basis of an order for 515 is valid… Read more »
It’s impossible for a country to produce absolutely everything. The UK never had a large medium calibre cannon producing industry here. Air, land and sea was covered here but not successfully. BMARC mainly built Oerlikon cannons under licence for the Royal Navy with no exports, Aden cannon was successful with exports but the 25mm fell through. Rarden was only successful because Scimitar was successful, it had no exports beyond Scimitar, Fox and Warrior. The UK could sustain a medium calibre cannon industry without exports in the Cold War, as soon as that ended we couldn’t. Nexter had 4 medium calibre… Read more »
I wonder how many Boxer exports can be expected in the future? Many countries have already bought their Boxers.
I think Boxer has a lot of potential, especially in Europe and M.E.
It will probably be the most successful post war European AFV, (discounting Leopard 2 as it doesn’t really count)
Boxer has sold well so far, to countries who want a well protected vehicle and find the versatility offered by the mix-and-match modules useful and have deep pockets to pay for a very expensive APC.
My point is about whether UK plc will make a lot of money from building Boxers for export in future – the market may well be aproaching saturation.
Boxer is still competing with VBCI and others for Qatar. That’s 490 including IFV’s which means turrets. Could be LMUK, Pearson with Samson, or Thales with Kongsberg for that. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of money in it. The army’s order for 523 was £2.8 billion so for 490 maybe a bit less or maybe some more as it would include IFV variants. That’s of course half the size of the Qatari Typhoon and Hawk deal, and dwarfed by the potential Saudi Typhoon deal, but it’s not about the money, it’s about symbolism. It would be the first new… Read more »
Hi Louis, Since that first large UK order for 523 Boxers, there has been a further one for 100. Still need a lot more than that to equip five bns. None of those 623 include any IFV variants (ie. an infantry carrier with a cannon). The Kongsberg RWS ordered so far can only take a MG or GMG, not a cannon. Things might change – our army staff has apparently been looking since April/May at ways to increase the lethality of the UK Boxers – don’t know what their thoughts are. Would Qatar definitely buy Boxers from the UK factory?… Read more »
Hi Graham, that’s poor wording on my part, sorry. Qatar want IFV variants for their 8×8 (whether it be Boxer or not) Ultimately Britainwill also get a turret on Boxer. I’m not too worried about it, Warrior won’t leave until 2030 at the earliest and that’s plenty of time to pick a turret. 1,016 Boxers have been funded and the requirement is set for 1,305. For some reason the MOD and Army have decided that Army needs nearly 3,000 AFV’s despite only having 2 armoured brigades. Artec UK was set up to bypass German regulations for exports. Export responsibility for… Read more »
I frequently get misunderstood – I must write in a more ‘Janet and John’ way, perhaps. Interesting that you feel sure that we will get a turret on Boxer (hopefully incorporating a 40mm stabilised cannon!). You are more sanguine than me. The 523 Boxers in Tranche 1 have all been ordered with the Kongsberg RS4 PROTECTOR RWS https://www.kongsberg.com/globalassets/kongsberg-defence–aerospace/2.1.-products/defence-and-security/remote-weapon-systems/protector-mct/protector-rs4.pdf that does not take a cannon of any sort, just a MG or GMG. So there is a danger that 523 of those Boxers will be under-gunned. I have not done the AFV count that you have done, but we do have… Read more »
The 523 only include 85 ICV so only 85 can really be described as underarmed. Realistically no matter how many bad decisions the MOD makes, a turreted IFV is still needed. The MOD also are yet to order a recovery variant on Boxer, I am confident that will happen too. Of course all 3,000 won’t be in the 2 brigades, it was a quick count I made and it just seems a huge amount considering an ABCT in the US army has 400-450 AFV’s. Ajax is looking to be a great vehicle. An Ajax 2 with Horstman suspension and CRT… Read more »
Fair point that only the 85 ICVs of the 523 are underarmed, but they are the most important vehs of the 523. As ex-REME, I am certainly keen to see the right REME vehs and fielded early in the programme. Apparently the UK is to receive a special variant, not fielded by other nations, a combine repair and recovery variant (Wiki:”a repair/recovery (MIV-REP) variant. MIV-REP and MIV-REC (REC – recovery) are understood to have been combined into a repair and recovery vehicle retaining the MIV-REP designation. I really don’t understand making a IFV variant of Ajax – the MoD has… Read more »
If the army were to want a tracked IFV, it should be based off of Ajax, or just ASCOD 2. Adding an entirely new vehicle just wouldn’t make sense, crucially it would add an entirely new engine that isn’t used anywhere in the British army, and can’t be built in the UK. I didn’t say RBSL has a bad reputation, just not much of a reputation at all. It’ll depend on how CH3 turns out which is on time so far (albeit a really slow timeframe it has to meet). LMUK doesn’t have much under its belt, Warrior would’ve been… Read more »
It seems the army has been dragooned into accepting Boxer as a replacement for Warrior – a decision by politicos Iam sure. I don’t see the army now, belatedly, making a case for a tracked IFV for the ABCTs – its too late. In my REME career, we supported many different types of AFV – we were not fazed that the recce family (CVR(T)) was very different to the Armd Inf family (Warrior). We supported many other types of AFV at the time. Its really not an issue. Its unfair to criticise LMUK for mostly MoD’s failings on WCSP –… Read more »
But most of them owned by Bae or Rolls Royce, so the profits come back here.
That’s fine but unlike the US we don’t press for local production. Any equipment made abroad by BAE or Rolls Royce is vulnerable to blocking by the country of manufacture. Just as we blocked Saab from selling Gripen to Argentina.
Plus those products are still overwhelmingly the product of that Country, Bae gives them scope, finance and International scale to sell and make profits from them to the benefit of both. Our own products now even when built here, will almost exclusively be designed and engineered abroad, unlike Sweden and Germany we won’t retain much if any capacity to create new original products or have predominantly unique and/or exclusive production lines for them, though the odd sardine may be tossed our way no doubt that Govt can sell as foreign investment in a uk industrial skill base.
That’s not true, people like to talk down uber successful companies like BAE and RR, whilst talking up identical foreign companies, contradicting themselves. There are many foreign companies that have operations here with full R&D and production so as such their products here are considered British. Thales for example has optronics, air defence, sonar and radar operations here with products considered British, e.g. LMM or Searchwater, or S2076. Another example is Leonardo who have huge operations here. Examples of British products would be ECRS mk2, Wildcat, or its entire land optronics capability. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Cummins, Caterpillar, Airbus and… Read more »
We locally produced Apache and are locally producing Boxer.
The key with having military kit being manufactured abroad is a very large inventory of spares. But the MOD do not seem to factor that into the equation: cheaper to manufacture here, with the advantage of more control, or abroad with a much larger inventory of spares. The Germany Typhoon story is ridiculous. Typhoon would not exist without BAE UK and yet we are dictated too by the Germany. Jobs will be lost in the UK but of course our politicians do not really care, it’s not near enough to election time !
At least the Italians have joined the future cruise and anti-ship missile program, and the Swedish are adopting CAMM.
Yes CAMM is gaining excellent momentum around the World, no wonder commitments to expand and extend the family are being supported. If only we had similar success in ground systems. I note CAMM has much input from ASRAAM*, is there potential to extract similar benefits from Meteor as longer range requirements are explored, be it as part of, going beyond CAMM itself?
*I presume this helped in being able to give Ukraine ASRAAM based mash up short range anti aircraft systems so quickly.
There was an Anglo-Japanese project to build on Meteor (JNAAM), but I believe it was cancelled.
Information on the project being cancelled was really limited. I’d be surprised if work on it has stopped considering GCAP.
The United Kingdoms defence exports did not increase, BAE’s exports did.
Rolls, Babcock, Qinetiq ,BMT and quite a few others will probably disagree with you.
The selling of British defence equipment to other countries 🤔. This simply doesn’t sound very clever to me !!! What if the equipment being sold to where it was sold to last year, is now being used to create even more havoc and death abroad that we are hearing about right now. In my opinion, ANY military equipment that is made in ANY country throughout the world, by law, should remain in the country in which it was made, and therefore ONLY be used by the official military in that particular country.
How likely is it that Saudis would place the rumored order of 40-50 Rafales?
Well if Germany continues to block then KSA will either order American or French. American could depend on the next election, having said that a UK Typhoon order may not be a priority for our next Government. Labour have been vocal on stopping arms sales to Saudi on human rights grounds, the French won’t be as fussy and ultimately the Saudis will get a fighter, just we won’t get any money. But as compensation we can sit on the moral high ground whilst our NHS crumbles from lack of funds.
I my previous life I worked for an organisation that dealt with a specific inter govt arms export arrangement. Very interesting stuff and a massive revelation on just what the benefits where to the UK economy from the whole project which covered Air, Land and Sea systems. Suffice to say everyone in the UK would be paying a couple of pence more in basic rate income tax without those exports. So, those taking the moral high ground on arms exports should ask those people paying basic rate tax if their moral compass allows them to pay 2 p more for… Read more »
70% growth in nominal ‘revenues’ I assume rather than nominal ‘prices’…..big difference ! Uk can’t compete (given its lack of domestic demand ) in producing welded metal in forms of armoured vehicles etc. Focus and value add has to be high end missile technology, aviation, sensors, design engineering, power generation, specialist armour etc. Long term industrial / technology share arrangements with the likes of Poland , South Korea, Japan and Italy should be pursued. Those countries tend to take a longer term relationship approach rather than short term political gain view ( as seen in Germany, France and USA) Really… Read more »
Funny how we can export loads of fighting kit but can only have bare minimum, or less, for our own forces.
Took the words right out of my mouth 😮 👍
Do can we have a CBA on attaches vs sales; don’t forget their expenses, staff and facilities. It’ll make a dent in those sales figures.
Prime contractors…Not the DAs is where the money gets made. Support contracts, upgrades, spares, in country expats.
There are several comments related to potential purchases by Turkey of relatively older marks of the Typhoon.
Bearing in mind that while Erdogan, erratic at the best of times and a very miltant force acting in many instances against the general precepts of what Nato stipulates, then I believe that we should be very circumspect when dealing with Turkey whilst Erdogan is in power.
He is a loose cannon and why on earth there is no mechanism for removing such an entity is highly questionable.