Canada exported nearly $2B in military goods & tech in 2020

Earlier this year, Global Affairs Canada published their Exports of Military Goods report for 2020. I thought I’d share some of the data with you.

Last year, Canada exported $1.97 billion worth of military goods and technology to countries other than the United States. This is down significantly from the record-breaking $3.76 billion exported in 2019, but it’s still the third highest value in at least the last 40 years. The second highest was in 2018, when we exported just barely more than $2 billion.

By comparison, between 1978 and 2017, Canada had only 2 years when we exported above $1 billion worth of military goods and technology. We’ve exported more in the last 3 years than we did in the previous 10 years combined.

Remember, that’s just non-US countries. As far as US exports last year, we sent them $126.1 million worth of military exports. Here’s how those break down:

Type	Permits	Value
Smooth-bore weapons, <20 mm calibre Automatic weapons, <12.77 mm calibre Accessories	57	$4.37 M
Smooth-bore weapons, >20 mm calibre Automatic weapons, >12.77 mm calibre Accessories	7	$6.42 M
Ammunition Fuse-setting devices	8	$68.42 M
Explosives (bombs, torpedoes, grenades, rockets, mines, etc)	38	$46.86 M
Total	113	$126.07 M

Canada also exported 10 armoured combat vehicles to the United States last year. The report didn’t contain any information on the combined value of those vehicles.

Regarding non-US countries, there were 18 countries who received military exports from Canada that had a combined value of at least $10 million, and that’s $10 million per country.

Destination	Value
Saudi Arabia	$1,310.57
United Kingdom	$122.88
Turkey	$48.05
Japan	$42.28
France	$41.37
Singapore	$35.07
Germany	$33.64
Sweden	$29.18
New Zealand	$27.29
Australia	$27.20
United Arab Emirates	$24.82
South Korea	$23.57
Netherlands	$21.74
Taiwan	$19.85
Israel	$18.95
Italy	$16.82
Norway	$14.02
Mexico	$13.10

These 18 countries accounted for 95.2% of all military exports, in terms of total value. That’s a combined $1.87 billion. The other 66 countries made up less 5% of total exports, at only $95.3 million.

Of the 18 countries that received over $10 million in exports, most of that went to one country: Saudi Arabia. Canada exported $1.31 billion in military goods and technology to the Saudis. That amounts to 70.1% of the exports to the top 18 countries and 66.7% of the exports to all 84 countries.

When we break it down by the number of permits, we see another story. Here are the top 20 countries by the number of export permits for military goods and technology.

	Utilized	Issued	Total
United Kingdom	354	399	753
Israel	400	247	647
Germany	211	229	440
France	133	128	261
Australia	93	77	170
Switzerland	76	77	153
Italy	66	65	131
Netherlands	65	64	129
Sweden	60	59	119
Japan	57	50	107
Norway	51	54	105
South Africa	29	72	101
Singapore	47	50	97
South Korea	45	52	97
New Zealand	39	52	91
Belgium	36	40	76
Thailand	34	39	73
Spain	32	39	71
Poland	33	34	67
United Arab Emirates	31	35	66

Utilized export permits may include permits that were issued in previous years but that were exported against in 2020. Issued export permits are permits that were issued in 2020.

So where does Saudi Arabia sit in this case? 29th place at 33 total permits: 18 utilized and 15 issued in 2020. $1.31 billion but only 33 permits. That works out to about $39.7 million per permit. They were the only country with a per permit value of over $1 million.

Here are the top 20 countries based on the value of their total exports divided by their total number of utilized and issued permits.

Country	Permits	Value	Per permit value
Saudi Arabia	33	$1,310,566,266.36	$39,714,129.28
Turkey	50	$48,049,465.54	$960,989.31
Taiwan	36	$19,849,731.40	$551,381.43
Japan	107	$42,275,355.49	$395,096.78
United Arab Emirates	66	$24,818,351.43	$376,035.63
Singapore	97	$35,065,448.39	$361,499.47
New Zealand	91	$27,293,140.84	$299,924.62
Sweden	119	$29,184,929.91	$245,251.51
South Korea	97	$23,565,832.32	$242,946.72
Netherlands	129	$21,738,642.59	$168,516.61
United Kingdom	753	$122,879,079.22	$163,186.03
Australia	170	$27,196,583.48	$159,979.90
France	261	$41,374,150.74	$158,521.65
Norway	105	$14,023,648.02	$133,558.55
Italy	131	$16,821,681.48	$128,409.78
Poland	67	$8,425,343.68	$125,751.40
Denmark	60	$7,279,248.87	$121,320.81
Spain	71	$8,423,571.71	$118,641.86
Thailand	73	$6,674,073.14	$91,425.66
Belgium	76	$6,133,413.04	$80,702.80

Now, keep in mind that these exports aren’t all weapons. Some of them are components for weapons, or accessories, or various technology.

If we restrict exports to strictly weapons, we actually end up with only 7 countries that Canada exported weapons to last year.

	ACV	LCA	UCAV	MML	Rifles/ carbides	Assault rifles	HMG	Total
Netherlands						361		361
Saudi Arabia	79	4					73	156
UAE					109			109
USA	10			44				54
Singapore					8			8
Germany			1		5			6
France	3							3