Official Statistics

UK defence export statistics 2022

Published 17 November 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-defence-export-statistics-2022/uk-defence-export-statistics-2022

1. Introduction

This statistical release presents information and trends on UK defence exports over the period from 2013 to 2022.  The scope of the statistics is the value of export contracts to overseas Ministries of Defence and associated Armed Services. The full value of a contract is assigned to the year in which it was signed, regardless of when physical delivery takes place. Further information can be found in the methodology paper accompanying this release on the GOV.UK website.

Information about UK defence export orders comes primarily from a survey of known UK defence exporters, carried out by UK Defence and Security Export (UKDSE). The data collected from the survey are combined with official contract information from the United States, Australian, and Canadian governments and NATO, along with information from specialised providers of defence market intelligence, and additional information from other media sources. Please see the methodology report published alongside these statistics for more information about data sources.

Rest of the World estimates are derived from the other (non-survey) sources listed above, with the addition of UK Ministry of Defence spending data to capture the UK’s imports from other countries.

The information collected on the defence market is vital to our understanding of the shape of the market and trends and helps UKDSE target support to the defence industry.

This is the tenth year that defence export figures have been published as Official Statistics. These are designated as Official Statistics under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Its aim is to support users to understand the strengths and limitations of these statistics, ensuring that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is compliant with the quality principles as stated in the Code of Practice for Statistics, and therefore, should help to reduce the risk of misusing data.

1.1 Notice of correction

During production of the 2022 statistics, it was found that some incorrect values had been used in previous releases, due to the way that data relating to Australian and Canadian defence contracts were being collected and interpreted. Those errors are corrected in these statistics, with the latest datasets and more robust processes now being used. The correction of this issue has resulted in a 2.3% net reduction in the total value of defence orders over the 10-year period from 2013 to 2022.

1.2 Notice of change

This release will only include statistics on defence exports this year. This is due to longer timescales for the reporting of data relating to security exports, which would not allow us to provide high quality statistics on these at this time. A release dealing only with Security exports will follow to allow for the orderly release of this information.

Defence exports as measured by orders and contracts typically see significant peaks and troughs that may not reflect the flow of delivery or receipt of payment. This is because the fulfilment of those orders, along with any associated payments, could be spread over several years. That spread is not captured in the data collected for these statistics, and the value of orders can therefore change substantially from year to year. Moving 5-year averages are used in this release to present trends that are less affected by large changes from year to year.

The original in-year values that were used to calculate the moving averages and create the charts are provided as CSV tables published alongside these statistics.

1.4 Note on inflation

All figures are reported in nominal prices (not adjusted for inflation), unless otherwise stated. We recognise that some of the recent increases in trade values will be partly due to price increases.

2. Executive summary

  • in 2022, the UK won defence orders worth £11.2 billion, compared to £6.6 billion in 2021, an increase of approximately 70% in nominal prices

  • the increase in 2022 is due primarily to new contracts to the Middle East and Europe, and exports of helicopters to Canada

  • over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, annual UK defence orders averaged £10.0 billion

  • over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, on average the aerospace sector is estimated to have accounted for 68% of the value of UK defence exports

  • both UK and Rest of World countries have seen substantial increases in exports to Europe between 2018 and 2022

3. UK defence exports

The total value of UK export orders in 2022 was £11.2 billion, an increase of £4.6 billion in nominal prices compared to 2021, although below the peak of £14.0 billion seen in 2018. The increase in 2022 is due primarily to new contracts to the Middle East and Europe, and exports of helicopters to Canada.

These large changes from year to year highlight the inherent variability of defence exports as measured by orders and contract awards. Please see the Note on Defence Export Trends and Cycles in Section 1 and refer to the methodology note published alongside these statistics for more information.

To highlight trends which are not as affected by large orders within one year, Figure 1 includes a 5-year moving average, which shows the average of the annual totals seen in the 5 years up to and including the corresponding year.

3.1 Figure 1: Value of UK defence export orders from 2013 to 2022 and 5-year moving average

Source: UKDSE survey of UK defence exporters, and additional information from various sources[footnote 1]

The 5-year moving average of UK defence exports orders has shown a trend of modest growth since 2017. Following below average exports in 2020 to 2021, possibly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a substantial increase in 2022.

4. UK defence exports by destination region

The Middle East[footnote 2] 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. Please see the note in section 1 regarding the variability of orders and contracts.

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.

4.1 Figure 2: Value of UK defence export orders by destination region: 5-year moving average

Source: UKDSE survey of UK defence exporters, and additional information from various sources[footnote 1]

5. UK defence exports by sector

The aerospace sector has been the largest sector by value for UK defence export orders for the entire period covered in this publication (2013 to 2022). For the 5-year period from 2018 to 2022, the aerospace sector accounted for 68% of the total value of UK defence export orders.

Note that it is not always possible to relate contract information to a specific sector. Where contracts do not clearly fit within a specific sector, they have been included as ‘Mixed or Unknown’.

5.1 Figure 3: Value of UK defence export orders by sector: 5-year moving average

Source: UKDSE survey of UK defence exporters, and additional information from various sources[footnote 1]

6. Rest of the world defence exports

The information in the following section is based on contract information from the United States, Australian and Canadian governments, the UK Ministry of Defence, and NATO, along with information from specialised providers of defence market intelligence and supplementary information from other media organisations. Please see the published methodology document for more information about data sources.

The comparisons shown in this section are based only on the data sources available, which are likely to leave some exporters or importers under-represented compared to others.

Because the survey of UK defence exporters carried out by UKDSE gives greater coverage of UK exports than is possible for other countries’ exports, and comprises a different methodology, the results are not comparable, and UK exports are therefore excluded from all data that inform the following charts and narrative. For the same reason, we advise users not to combine or compare UK export figures with the Rest of World figures. Please see the methodology report for more details.

Figure 4a shows indicative trends for Rest of the World (RoW) by exporting country. Figure 4b shows the same information excluding values for the United States and France, to enable the values of other countries to be seen more clearly.

Source: various governmental, industry and media sources.[footnote 1]

The United States has been the largest defence exporter globally from 2013 to 2022. The 5-year average annual value for the United States increased markedly in 2020, due in large part to high value aircraft orders to multiple countries in that year.

The next largest exporters continue to trend much lower than the United States, although France’s 5-year average has increased since 2020 due to winning large aircraft contracts with various countries in 2021 and with Indonesia in 2022, as well as a contract for frigates to Greece, while South Korea saw a substantial increase in 2022 due to major deals with Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Note that Russia’s defence exports are not shown in Figure 4. This is because UKDSE does not have information on Russian defence contracts for 2022, and therefore cannot calculate an accurate average export value for the 5 years from 2018 to 2022. Whilst this publication cannot estimate the value of Russian defence contracts in 2022, open source reporting suggests that Russia’s defence exports have reduced following the invasion of Ukraine.

China does not appear in the top exporting countries shown above, although open source information suggests that China is a significant defence exporter. The international trends described in this publication are based on published information about contracts and orders, and countries whose defence contract information is less publicly available are likely to be underrepresented in these statistics.

Please refer to the methodology report published alongside this release for more information about sources of information for Rest of World exports.

7. Rest of world defence orders by destination region

For most of the period covered by these statistics, the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions have been the largest destination markets for Rest of World defence exports, based on the available data. Since 2018, however, exports to Europe have increased consistently. Over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, average exports to Europe exceeded those to both Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

The notable increase in the value of exports to Mixed or Unknown destinations in 2020 is principally due to a large contract for F-16 aircraft exported by the United States, which related to various destination countries Source: United States Department of Defense. While it was possible to identify some of those destination countries and their corresponding values using information from other sources, most of the total value could not be related to specific countries or regions.

Source: various governmental, industry and media sources.[footnote 1]

8. Rest of world defence orders by destination country

Over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, average annual Rest of World (non-UK) defence exports to Saudi Arabia have exceeded those to all other countries, based on the available data.

The United Arab Emirates saw a large increase in its 5-year average orders in 2021, in large part due to an order of aircraft from France in that year.

There was a large increase in defence exports to Poland in 2022, with exports in that year exceeding those to all other countries[footnote 3], based on the available data. South Korea accounted for most exports to Poland in 2022, including K239 Chunmoo Multiple-Rocket Launcher Systems (MLRS’s), FA-50 aircraft and other military equipment.

Note that Australia is likely to be over-represented compared to other destination countries. One of the main sources of defence data used in this section is the Australian government’s official contract data, which provides more comprehensive information than is available for most other countries.

Source: various governmental, industry and media sources.[footnote 1]

9. Rest of world defence orders by sector

Based on the available data, the aerospace sector has consistently been the largest single sector for Rest of World defence exports over the period covered by these statistics. On a 5-year average basis, the aerospace sector has increased further from 2019 due to large orders in 2020 and 2021. This was mainly due to $62 billion worth of United States contracts for F-16 Aircraft to various foreign customers in 2020 and a contract for France to provide Rafale Aircraft and Helicopters to UAE in 2021.

The aerospace sector accounted for 57% of the value of RoW defence exports over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, based on the available data. The equivalent proportion for the UK of 68% is notably higher than this, demonstrating the relative importance of the sector to the UK’s defence industry.

Source: various governmental, industry and media sources.[footnote 1]

The data available in the period from 2013 to 2021 have suggested a steady increase in Russian defence exports over time, when viewed as a 5-year moving average.

As of 2022, no data about Russia’s defence export orders are available from the sources used for these statistics. Because no total value is available for 2022, the indicative trend shown in Figure 8 only covers the period from 2013 to 2021, and a 5-year moving average for the period from 2018 to 2022 cannot be calculated.

While this publication cannot estimate the value of Russian defence contracts in 2022 due to the lack of available contract data, open source reporting suggests that Russia’s defence exports have reduced following the invasion of Ukraine.

10.1 Figure 8: Indicative trend of Russian defence exports from 2013 to 2021: annual values and 5-year moving average

Source: various governmental, industry and media sources.[footnote 1]

11. Military support for Ukraine

Much of the UK’s transfers of defence equipment and expertise to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022 has been in the form of military assistance, rather than through private contracts that would appear in the UKDSE survey or other data sources used for these statistics. For this reason, the defence export figures shown in this release do not show the full scale of UK military support for Ukraine.

The same is likely to be true of the other data sources that inform these statistics, and Rest of World exports to Ukraine are not specifically examined in this publication for the same reason.

According to a House of Commons Library report, the United Kingdom committed £2.3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine in 2022, with a commitment to match this funding in 2023. This figure is not comparable with the order and contract values reported in these statistics.

Source: House of Commons library, ‘Military assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion’ research briefing

12. Further information

UK Defence and Security Exports

Department for Business and Trade statistics

13. Contact

statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Responsible statistician: Jonathan Lewis, Head of Business Opportunities and Sector Statistics.

  1. Aside from the UKDSE survey for UK exports, principal data sources include US Department of Defense, Janes, DACIS, BBC Monitoring, NATO, CanadaBuys and AusTender. Please refer to the separately published methodology document for more details. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. For the purposes of these statistics, Egypt is included in the Middle East rather than Africa. This should be considered if comparing with other trade statistics. ↩

  3. Note that this is not visible in Figure 6, which shows 5-year moving averages rather than in-year values. For in-year values, please see the tables published alongside this publication. ↩

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