6 days Ago By Smruti Deshpande
New Delhi: Even as India and China ranked among the top five military spenders in 2024, India’s military expenditure remained way lower as compared to China, as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) latest data on Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024. As per the SIPRI report, among the total share of world military expenditure of the top 15 countries, India accounted for 3.2 percent, whereas China accounted for 12 percent of the global share.
India ranked fifth among the top 5 countries with the highest share of military spending, while China ranked second in the same index. US ranked first. In 2024, India accounted for $86.
1 billion, whereas China spent $314 billion on its military in 2024—up by 7 percent from 2023. As per the SIPRI report, India increased its spending by 1.6 percent in 2023 to $86.
1 billion in 2024—a 42 percent increase from 2015. Pakistan, holding the 29th rank, accounted for $10.2 billion.
The report added, “India, which is one of the world’s largest arms importers, has put in place a policy aimed at reducing its reliance on arms imports. The policy, which earmarks 75 percent of Indian capital outlays (equivalent to 22 percent of total military spending) to fund domestic military procurement, has made significant progress over the years, with India now able to produce armoured vehicles, helicopters, and submarines.” It also further added that the country remained reliant on imports for advanced systems such as combat aircraft.
The top five biggest spenders in 2024 were the US, China, Russia, Germany, and India. These countries together accounted for 60 percent of world military spending. According to the SIPRI report, “China’s rising spending is largely driven by its long-term goal of modernising its military across all domains by 2035.
” China, according to the report, is believed to have unveiled several improved capabilities in 2024, such as the new stealth combat aircraft, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), and uncrewed underwater vehicles. The report also stated that China continued to rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal in 2024 and moved to strengthen certain types of counterspace and cyberwarfare capabilities. “It established separate aerospace and cyberspace forces in 2024,” the report said.
According to the report, the world military expenditure rose to $2,718 billion in 2024. This meant that the spending has now increased every year for a full decade, going up by 37 percent between 2015 and 2024, the report stated. Together, the top 15 spenders in 2024 accounted for 80 percent of global military spending ($2,185 billion), leading to 79 percent of total increase in spending over the year.
Moreover, the military expenditure increased in all five of the world’s geographical regions for the second time in a row, as a result of heightened geopolitical tensions across the globe. “The decade-long growth in global spending can be partly attributed to spending increases in Europe, largely driven by the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, and in the Middle East, driven by the war in Gaza and wider regional conflicts,” the report stated. The US and China, being the two largest military spenders, accounted for almost half of the world’s military expenditure in 2024.
Russia’s military expenditure, the third largest in the world, reached an estimated $149 billion. It was 38 percent more than in 2023 and double what it was in 2015. “Its military spending in 2024 was equivalent to 7.
1 percent of its GDP and 19 percent of total Russian government expenditure,” it said. (Edited buy Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri) Also read: ‘Star Wars tech’: DRDO showcases 30 KW laser-based weapon to take down helicopters, swarm drones var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.
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