"Defense spending is "growing everywhere" says Thales International CEO Pascale Sourisse, amid a global boom in the arms industry spurred by geopolitical tensions. Arms spending in 2024 reached an unprecedented $2.7 trillion in 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a conflict think tank. The same think tank estimated that the world's top 100 defense companies raked in $679 billion in collective revenue, the highest amount reported since SIPRI started tracking the number in 2002."
""There is a very strong increase in defense spending in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and in the Americas-it's growing everywhere," Sourisse, who is also Thales's senior vice president for international development, told Fortune on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow. That pushed the French company, No. 190 on Fortune's Europe 500, to "extensively" ramp up production. Sourisse cited radars as an example: Thales has quadrupled its production of radars to cater to rising demand for air surveillance."
"Unmanned aircraft-both the aircraft themselves, and how to shoot them down-drove much of the conversation at the Singapore Airshow. Thales, Sourisse said, is working on ways to "manage swarms of drones and solutions to counter drone attacks-what you would call Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems, or C-UAS." Thales shares have risen by more than 50% over the past 12 months, as part of a global boom in defense stocks as investors bet that geopolitical tensions and the return of armed conflict in places like Ukraine will drive demand for new weapons and defenses."
Global arms expenditure jumped to $2.7 trillion in 2024 while the top 100 defense companies earned $679 billion collectively, setting record highs. Thales increased production substantially, quadrupling radar output to meet rising air-surveillance demand. The company is developing capabilities to manage drone swarms and counter unmanned aerial threats (C-UAS). Defense equities climbed sharply as investors anticipated sustained demand fueled by geopolitical tensions and renewed conflicts. Fears about U.S. reliability and alliance shifts encouraged sourcing from Europe and East Asia, boosting shares at firms such as Rheinmetall, Hanwha Aerospace, Mitsubishi Heavy Engineering, and ST Engineering.
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