THE US Government is expected to confirm next month that it lost market share in the global weapons trade to Europe last year.

The Americans may have won a massive number of new contracts in 2006, but their weapons sales during 2005 are thought to have been lacklustre. Sales by Russia, France and Britain were, by comparison, larger than normal and these countries will have eroded America’s dominant global market share.

Dick Grimmett, defence analyst at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, is expected to produce his authoritative analysis of the global arms trade next month.

The Times estimates that US foreign military sales in 2005 were about $12.3 billion, on a par with 2004. Russia, France and the UK are thought to have sold about $5 billion (£2.66 billion) to $6 billion of weaponry each, giving each country about a 13 per cent global market share. America’s market share will be around 33 per cent, as it was in 2004, but down on the 40 per cent to 50 per cent that it was securing in previous years.

European manufacturers’ sales have increased as rising oil prices give oil-producing countries bigger budgets, while Russia and Eastern European countries have benefited from countries in emerging market opting for their cheaper goods rather than top-of-the-range American weapons.

The Europeans have also had a good start to 2006, with BAE Systems confirming last week a £5 billion-plus deal to sell 72 Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia.

However, the Pentagon’s desire to use foreign military sales as a tool in the War on Terror should help it to regain market share in 2006.

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