Arms Sales: US and its NATO allies are home to two thirds of the world's weapons-producing companies.

The US and its NATO allies are still home to two thirds of the world's weapons-producing companies. Together they account for 84.2 percent of global sales, the SIPRI report said.

Dramatic shifts are rare when it comes to weapons and the nations that export them. The majority of firearms are still produced in the US, Russia or Western Europe.

Increasingly, however, fresh faces are cropping up on the arms transfers report produced annually by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Firms in Turkey, India, Brazil, Singapore and South Korea today rank among the 100 largest weapons-producing nations in the world - even if that means just two companies in India's case or a 50th place spot for city-state Singapore.

"Firstly, it has to do with a political will to create indigenous defense production capabilities," said the director of the study, Aude Fleurant. "Brazil, Turkey, South Korea, for example, have all set up specific policies to ensure the development of arms production capabilities in their countries."

Read more: US arms sales down, Russia′s up: SIPRI report on international arms transfers | World | DW.DE | 15.12.2014