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| F-35 Under-Construction (File Photo) |
By Zachary Keck
Global defense spending shrank last year for the first time since 1998, according to a new report by the UK-based advisory firm, AlixPartners. This is consistent with other recent reports by organizations like Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI).
In its 2013 Aerospace & Defense Industry Outlook, AlixPartners estimates that the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry as a whole grew by 6.8 percent in 2012, a sizeable increase from the 5.5 percent growth rate the industry experienced in 2011.
Yet this growth rate reflected the strength of the commercial aerospace sector, which the report forecasts will deliver 1,300 new jets in 2013. This growth is being fueled largely outside the Western world that has traditionally dominated the market. For example, African airlines experienced an over 7 percent increase in their traffic in 2012, and AlixPartners expects that by 2013, Asia will account for nearly a third of all new jet deliveries worldwide.
The defense sector is also shifting from the developed to the developing world, with Asian countries outspending their European NATO allies for the first time in 2012.
Read the full story at The Diplomat