8 Free Databases Every Defense Industry Analyst Should Bookmark

Every defense procurement story eventually needs a number: how much a country spent, who sold what to whom, how a contract compares to historical patterns. Getting that number from a press release means trusting whoever wrote it. Getting it from source data means being able to check it yourself. These eight databases are free, maintained by research institutions and governments rather than news outlets, and cover the questions defense industry analysts are asked most often.

1. SIPRI Arms Transfers Database

What it is: The most comprehensive public record of international transfers of major conventional arms, maintained by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and covering every transfer since 1950.

What it covers: Aircraft, air defense systems, armored vehicles, artillery, ships, and missiles, tracking supplier, recipient, quantity, and delivery years for each transfer. SIPRI assigns each transfer a Trend Indicator Value, a standardized unit that allows comparison across different weapon types and years, since actual contract values are often unpublished.

How to use it: The database was last updated on March 9, 2026, with data through the end of 2025. Query by supplier or recipient country to reconstruct a full transfer history, useful for verifying claims in a company's own press materials against the independently recorded pattern.

Access it here: armstransfers.sipri.org

2. SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

What it is: A separate SIPRI database tracking national military spending, distinct from the Arms Transfers Database, which tracks equipment rather than money.

What it covers: Annual defense budgets for nearly every country in the world, going back decades, standardized to allow cross-country comparison in current and constant dollars.

How to use it: The most recent edition, released alongside SIPRI's April 2026 fact sheet, confirmed that combined global military spending patterns continue rising, with European figures showing some of the sharpest year on year increases on record. This is the primary source underlying most defense spending claims cited by other outlets.

Access it here: SIPRI Databases

3. SIPRI Arms Industry Database

What it is: SIPRI's ranking of the 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies in the world, based on annual arms revenue.

What it covers: Company-level revenue data, allowing direct comparison between defense contractors regardless of country of origin. The combined arms revenue of the SIPRI Top 100 reached 679 billion dollars in 2024, up 5.9 percent from the previous year, the highest level SIPRI has recorded.

How to use it: Useful for benchmarking a specific company's scale against global peers, and for tracking which national defense industrial bases are gaining or losing ground in aggregate revenue over time.

Access it here: SIPRI Databases

4. NATO Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries

What it is: NATO's own annual report on member state defense spending, based on figures each Ministry of Defence reports according to a shared definition.

What it covers: Defense expenditure by country in absolute terms and as a share of GDP, plus equipment spending as a share of total defense budget, a figure NATO treats as a proxy for modernization investment.

How to use it: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte presented the most recent Annual Report on March 26, 2026, confirming that European allies and Canada increased defense spending by 20 percent in real terms in 2025, and that every member state met or exceeded the 2 percent of GDP benchmark for the first time since it was set in 2014. This is the authoritative source for any claim about a specific country's NATO spending ranking.

Access it here: NATO Defence Expenditure Report (PDF)

5. EDA Defence Data Portal

What it is: The European Defence Agency's annual compilation of defense data from all 27 EU member states, collected since 2006.

What it covers: Total defense expenditure, defense investment, collaborative spending between member states, and research and technology funding, broken down at the EU level in a way NATO's report does not replicate for non-NATO EU members.

How to use it: The most recent edition covers 2025-2026 figures compiled through PESCO national implementation plans and the EU's Coordinated Annual Review on Defence. This is the more precise source when a story concerns EU-specific programs like EDIP or PESCO rather than NATO-wide figures.

Access it here: EDA Defence Data Portal

6. Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker

What it is: A database maintained by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy that quantifies military, financial, and humanitarian aid pledged to Ukraine by 41 governments since January 2022.

What it covers: Bilateral government pledges broken down by country and by type of support, valued using market prices where in-kind equipment is involved. EU institutional aid is tracked separately from individual member state contributions.

How to use it: Data through April 2026 showed Germany allocating 4.2 billion euros in military aid in March and April alone, concentrated in air defense and drones, while financial aid from most donors slowed due to delayed EU funding. This is the standard reference for any claim about which country has given Ukraine how much, and in what form.

Access it here: Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker

7. UN Register of Conventional Arms

What it is: A transparency mechanism established by the UN General Assembly in 1991, through which member states voluntarily report their international transfers of seven categories of major conventional weapons.

What it covers: Battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, and missiles or missile launchers, reported directly by exporting and importing governments rather than estimated by a third party.

How to use it: With 175 countries having reported at least once, UNROCA is estimated to capture around 90 percent of the global arms trade by volume. Its value lies in cross-checking a transfer against the exporting and importing government's own official submission, rather than relying on media reporting alone.

Access it here: unroca.org

8. DSCA Historical Sales Book and Major Arms Sales Notifications

What it is: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency's records of Foreign Military Sales, the government-to-government mechanism through which most US defense exports are conducted.

What it covers: The Historical Sales Book provides by-country totals of implemented Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Financing dating back to 1950. The Major Arms Sales page separately publishes each proposed sale once notified to Congress, typically well before a contract is finalized.

How to use it: Because congressional notification happens early in the process, this is often the first public confirmation that a specific country is buying a specific US system, ahead of any formal contract announcement. Useful for distinguishing a notified, not-yet-final sale from a signed contract when writing about a pending deal.

Access it here: DSCA Major Arms Sales

Using these together

No single database answers every question a procurement story raises. A workable habit: check SIPRI's Arms Transfers Database to confirm a historical pattern, NATO or EDA data to place a budget figure in context, and UNROCA or DSCA to verify a specific transfer against the reporting government's own submission, before treating any single source, including a company's own announcement, as the final word.

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Frequently asked questions

Which database is best for verifying a specific arms deal? UNROCA and the DSCA Major Arms Sales page are the most direct, since both draw on official government submissions or congressional notifications rather than third-party estimates.

What is the difference between SIPRI's Arms Transfers Database and its Military Expenditure Database? The Arms Transfers Database tracks physical equipment transferred between countries. The Military Expenditure Database tracks total national defense budgets, regardless of what the money is spent on.

Is EDA Defence Data different from NATO's spending report? Yes. EDA covers all 27 EU member states, including those outside NATO, while NATO's report covers only its 32 member states. For EU-specific programs, EDA is the more precise source.

How current is the Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker? It is updated regularly, with the most recent public data covering aid allocations through April 2026.