SIPRI report on international arms sale

Arms Sales rise puts downturn into perspective
Something to put the military-industrial complex's whining about (still entirely hypothetical) miniscule cuts in their welfare programs into perspective:

Sales of weapons and military services by the world's biggest arms companies have continued to rise during the downturn and now exceed $400bn (£250bn), a leading independent research body has reported.

Though the increase has slowed, just 1% year-on-year in 2010, the rise in sales has been 60% in real terms since 2002, figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) showed. The total sales, including military services, of the top 100 arms companies, reached $ 411.1bn (£257.6bn) in 2010, Sipri said.