This discussion is basically pointless, as some debaters think that weapons exports mean that a country has the "best weapons".
That's definitely not the case. Russia, France and Germany have of course "good stuff"; however, that's not the point. The point is that they have neglected their own armed forces over a number of years, and have chosen to supply other countries with weapons instead of their own armed forces, thus making weapons exports priority over their own forces.
The U.S. is the only one (but for very long) that has the capacity to both arm their own forces and supply other countries with weapons at the same time, due to its Imperial Military Complex that even Eisenhower warned about when he was the president.
Earlier this week, we could read that the U.S. Defence was the biggest employer in the world. However, China's PLA / PLAN / PLAAF was the 2nd biggest employer in this world with 2.3 million employees, whilst the U.S. had 3.2 mill employed in this sector.
China's military output has still not realized it's full production potential regarding the infrastructure for a mass-production of high-end items (with exception of few items such as the Navy DDGs, frigates & corvettes).
China is still only spending 2% of its GDP on defence, while the U.S is spending 3.6% and Russia 4.5%. Still China can match many items the U.S. and Russia have.
But as I said earlier, China is focused on suppying its own forces first, and not letting too much of the production potential being tied to exports to other countries.
In this regard, being already a 3rd weapons exporter is a huge achievement.
If China wasn't happy with its own products, such as fighters, attack helicopters, diesel subs, etc, China would still be importing these products from Russia.
But the fact is, China hasn't imported anything for the past few years, except engines and some transport helicopters to fill in the gap temporarily. The trend regarding imports from Russia is clear; it has decreased considerably.
And yes, I know "all about" those S-400, Lada/Amur SSK & Su-35 rumors, but I'll believe them when I see them.
In the meantime, Russia is unfortunately having trouble with even making their frigate and corvette to float, since the gas turbine engines were from Ukraine.
So the point is, "everyone has their own engines problems sometimes". Russia regarding frigates and corvettes, and China regarding jet engines. But both are working hard on fixing the problem. U.S. have had a lot of problems with their F-35 too, and several other items.
It is also important to note that top three weapons importers from Russia are India, China and Algeria. These three stand for more than 60 percent of Russian weapons imports.
However, when you look closer at the numbers, you will see the real facts, which are: 40% are from India, 11 percent from China and 10% from Algeria, for totla of 61 percent. Then you have Vietnam with almost another 10 percent. That pushes the number up to 70% percent.
Then you have Venezuela with another 5 percent, which pushes the total number to more than 75 percent for top 5 arms importers of Russian origin.
These number tell how vunerable Russian export numbers are. The biggest allies of Russia - India and China - are pursuing their own products more and more, hence there is not much potential to expand beyond the current numbers (40 and 11 percent respectively).
Then you have Algeria that has started to buy more weapons from China and Germany.
On 4th place, there is Vietnam, but it is very limited what they can buy from now on, due to their very small economy, and since they already have splashed 3 billion USD for 6 SSK Improved Kilos.
On 5th place, well, I don't even need to mention the state of Venezuelan economy these days, so there is not much potential for new or "important" sales for a very long time.
Then you have the U.S. that is supplying a lot of (useless) weapons to terrorist / Wahhabi regimes within GCC, who prefer to pay blood price for some shiny d!ck measurment toys because Damascus, Baghdad and Teheran are so "naughty", according to Wahhabis, lol.
That of course puts the U.S. sligthly ahead of Russia. What a great "achievement" for the U.S. right there regarding weapons exports. "Great" Wahhabi clients.
No wonder the U.S. is first when Wahhabis pay more than 90 billion USD for weapons over the past 4 years.
How U.S. weapons will play a huge role in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen - The Washington Post
China on the other hand, has resonable prices for their friends and allies (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Algeria, Thailand) to mention a few.
It is also important to point out that many of these arms deals are purely political, as they are rarely open to free competition. There is always pressure involved which the U.S. and France are especially using and denying their friends and allies to buy from other countries.
While Russia is just sticking to its friends and allies, mainly from the Cold War, where Russia still has leverage, and has used economic debt relief & sanitation to several countries, in order to "bag in" new deals. Many of these contries had also traditional Soviet weaponry, thus, making it also more practical to order new weaponry which they're accustomed to.
That means there is no point in ordering equally good weapons from other sources, if you're already familiar with something from earlier on.
Don't even let me start with France. They practically attacked two countries (Libya and Mali), just to prove that their Rafale works "excellent" against two defenceless countries in Africa, which is a disgusting thing to do, but this is the way French as "marketing" their weapons.
Then we know how excellent U.S. weapons work by raping several defenceless countries for the past 24 years. And then I guess, Russia also "got experience in Georgia and Ukraine" over the past few years.
I have to laugh each time when someone says that "Chinese wepoans aren't proven on the battlefield". Ok, that practically means that China needs to rape a few defenceless countries to get "more experience" and then increase its exports. Right, lol. I am glad that China is not doing this, but it's funny because those are the same guys that would say that "China is aggressive" if China lifts one finger; the same guys than have no problem with raping defenceless countries in the Balkans and MENA region.
It's like asking a martial arts master to kick a baby, because that gives "combat experience and proven battle skills", lol.
........................................
. No offense.
