The evolution of global missile transactions between the 1950s and 2010s

Abstract

Since they emerged as modern weapons, missiles have been consolidated as an important defense product, with high technological potential and increasingly widespread use. Aiming to better understand its dynamics of consolidation and diffusion, this article proposes to carry out a comprehensive exploratory data analysis of the evolution of global missile transactions in the period from the 1950s to the 2010s. The results attest 1) to the expressive growth of the international transfers of missiles about the other categories of defense products, jumping from the seventh position in the 1950s to consolidate as the third most prominent transferred weapon category in the 2010s, 2) to the high market concentration at the level of missile suppliers, with only three countries – United States, Soviet Union/Russia, and France – concentrating average exports of 84.6% of the total flows over the decades, and 3) to the relatively less stable pattern at the level of acquisition, with substantial changes in the classification among the largest missile importers from the decisive influence motivated by geopolitical events.