The global trend-indicator value of foreign deliveries of major conventional weapons in 1994 is estimated by SIPRI at $21 725 million in constant (1990) US dollars.

The index produced using the SIPRI valuation system is not comparable to official economic statistics such as GDP, public expenditure and export/import figures. The purpose of the valuation system is to enable the aggregation of data on physical arms transfers. Similar weapon systems require similar values, and SIPRI has created an index of trend-indicator values which can be aggregated in a number of different ways. The SIPRI system was designed as a trend-measuring device, to permit the measurement of changes in the total flow of major weapons and to illustrate its geographical pattern.

Allowing for the fact that data for the past calendar year are usually revised upwards in subsequent years as new and better information becomes available, the global volume of deliveries of major conventional weapons appears to have been stable during the period 1991-94 after a period of rapid decline between 1987 and 1991.

The USA remained predominant as a supplier of major conventional weapons. Although the volume of US deliveries declined for the second successive year, the USA still accounted for 55% of total deliveries. The volume of deliveries of major conventional weapons recorded for Russia in 1994 was sharply reduced from the level recorded for 1993.

Among the recipients, Asia, Europe and the Middle East remain the most important centres of demand for major conventional weapon transfers. While Middle Eastern countries accounted for 31% of the total volume of major weapon deliveries in 1985, in 1994 this share was 24%. While European countries accounted for 26% of deliveries of major conventional weapons in 1985, in 1994 they accounted for 31%. This increase in share has occurred in spite of the significant reduction in major weapon acquisitions by members of the former Warsaw Treaty Organization. In the period 1990-94, south-eastern Europe, in particular Greece and Turkey, has seen significant deliveries of major conventional weapons.

* Extensive data appendices to chapter 14, by Ian Anthony, Gerd Hagmeyer-Gaverus, Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T. Wezeman, provide details of the arms trade in major conventional weapons in 1994. An appendix explains the sources and methods of the data collection, and there are separate studies of `The 1994 review of the UN Register of Conventional Arms', by Edward J. Laurance and Herbert Wulf; `South Africa's arms production and exports', by Ravinder Pal Singh and Pieter D. Wezeman; and `The impact of light weapons on security: a case study of South Asia', by Chris Smith.