The following visualization shows the most frequently traded arms models based on the unit quantity ordered and can be filtered by the type of weapon and year of purchase. Given the common assumption of rapid military innovation, it is interesting to note that some of these models, such as the missile types BGM-71 TOW, JDAM, and Paveway, appear to have been in high demand for more than five decades. Of course, it is important to note that there are likely numerous variants and updates being made to these models on a frequent basis. A few of these weapons have had a particularly strong historical and present day impact on global military activity and are discussed further below.
The M113 is one of the most used armored fighting vehicles of all time. Entering service in the 1960s, it has been deployed to more than 50 countries, with use in almost every incident of large-scale conflict ever since including the Vietnam War, Yom Kippur War, and Lebanese Civil War, to name a few.
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The SIPRI dataset contains 7 records of cluster bomb sales (CBU97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon) from the US to Oman (2004), Turkey (2006), the UAE (2007, 2010), South Korea (2014), Saudi Arabia (2015), and India (2017). The first image shows a screenshot taken of a Youtube video showing a live CBU-97 SFW test bombing. Cluster bombs were most infamously used in the Vietnam War, resulting in millions of unexploded ordnances in Laos (second image), Vietnam, and Cambodia. At one point, cluster bomblets contained chemical agents such as sarin (image 3), although such models have never been used. Today, bomb casings formerly containing cluster bomblets have been repurposed into boats, planters, and building support, in a very poignant visual of the legacies of war (image 4, taken by Mark Watson). The Convention on Cluster Munitions was ratified in 2008 and has since been adopted by 120 countries. The US is not one of them.
