Saudi Arabia UK's biggest arms export customer

[Brazen]

Interesting reading from the Grauniad, and offered without comment despite being broken down by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/mar/09/britain-arms-trade-caat-interactive

The top five countries to which the UK exports are; Saudi Arabia, France, the USA, the UAE and Malaysia, followed closely by China. Out of a total product value of GBP24.2 billion over the period, the UAE purchased nearly GBP4 billion.

The peak purchasing month was GBP2.8 billion in June 2011, at the peak of Nato's enforcement of the no-fly zone during the Libyan civil war. Prior to that, the previous high came in April 2009, at the height of the Afghan war and the month UK forces ended combat operations in Iraq.

By export product ratings, the ML10 "aircraft, helicopters and drones" category by far outweighs any other, with a value of GBP7.9billion, followed by 5A002 "telecommunications and information security" category at GBP 4.4billion, although there is a degree of crossover between a number of the categories. The third category is 0C002, "nuclear materials, facilities and equipment".

The UK shows its high-tech expertise and top spy heritage when the statistics are broken down by item. Equipment employing cryptography tops the list, followed by components for combat aircraft, imaging cameras, weapons sites and cryptographic software.