New record for Italian arms sales: in 2025, a full €9,1 billion in export authorisations

10 April 2026

The Italian Government authorises a new record in military exports: +19% compared to 2024, with the Middle East dominating once again and Kuwait as the top recipient. The Ukraine paradox continues. Israel still absent from new permits, but pre-existing supplies continue.

The annual Report required under Law 185/90 covering the year 2025 on authorised and carried out operations regarding the export, import and transit of armaments has been officially announced and transmitted to Parliament. As in the past two years, the Meloni Government has substantially met the legal deadline of 31 March, something that Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo notes positively, and which should allow Parliament to open a serious and timely debate on the data contained in the Report.

The figures in the 2025 Report mark an unambiguous new chapter in the rise of the Italian defence industry on international markets (recently highlighted by SIPRI trends as well), with a 19% increase in authorisations compared to 2024. The Middle East (a turmoiled region swept by dangerous conflicts with global repercussions) has forcefully returned to the centre of export flows, which have also seen a growing concentration of weapons system production and sales in the hands of a few large operators. A robust and troubling increase that, once again, raises urgent questions about the coherence between the Government’s choices and the legal and ethical constraints set out in Law 185/90 itself and in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Italy ratified more than ten years ago.

ITALIAN ARMS EXPORTS IN 2025

In 2025, the total value of authorisations for the movement of armaments reached approximately €11,141 billion, of which €9,164 billion were outflows from Italy and €1,977 billion were inflows. Exports show an increase of 19,14% compared to 2024, when a +25% increase over the previous year had already been recorded. Over the past four years (2022–2025), the volume of authorisations has surged by a colossal +87% (for non-EU imports, the figure reaches an unprecedented +171% over the same period).

In detail, individual export authorisations (those issued to specific countries for specific weapons systems) reached a total of €7.721 billion (+19,68% compared to 2024, and a full +101% compared to 2022), while the number of authorisations remained essentially stable (2.576 vs. 2.569). Global co-production licences with EU/NATO countries stood at approximately €1,374 billion (compared to €1,18 billion in 2024, a +16.4% year-on-year increase and +37.6% over four years). Brokering authorisations, however, declined sharply: from €257.7 million in 2024 to just €100.3 million in 2025 (-61%), consistent with the typically volatile nature of this category.

On the side of actual deliveries recorded by the Customs Agency, definitive exports in 2025 amounted to approximately €5,142 billion (across 3.189 authorisations), a significant increase compared to €3,58 billion in 2024, confirming that authorisations issued in previous years are progressively materialising into real deliveries. Counting temporary exports, re-exports and global licences, the total value of military materials leaving Italy in 2025 comfortably exceeds €6 billion.

Banking transactions linked to arms exports surpassed €14 billion in 2025 (compared to €12 billion in 2024), with 23.942 communications submitted by intermediaries (+10,91% compared to the 21.586 in 2024). 66,18% of transactions for definitive exports were handled by just three institutions: UniCredit, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, and Deutsche Bank.

RECIPIENTS OF ITALIAN ARMS IN 2025

The number of recipient countries stands at 88 (down from 90 in 2024), with a geographically significant finding: transfers to EU/NATO countries account for only 37,62% of the total, while the remaining 62,38% goes to non-EU/NATO countries. This is a deterioration from the already concerning 55,9% recorded in 2024, and in sharp contradiction with the spirit and provisions of Law 185/90.

At the top of the list of recipient countries in 2025 is Kuwait, which ranked 76th in 2024 and suddenly jumped to first place thanks to a single licence worth approximately €2.6 billion — a licence that alone represents nearly 29% of all individual authorisations and heavily distorts the geographical distribution, inflating the Middle East’s share to 37,03% of the total (a strong increase, as already noted).

The main recipients in 2025 include:

Kuwait, with over €2,6 billion (first place, was 76th in 2024) for technical support and training services relating to a previous sale of Eurofighter fighter-bombers
Germany (€526 million), France (€346 million) and the United Kingdom (€345 million) confirming a stable presence among the top European recipients
The United States, with €363 million in authorisations, rising to third place overall
Ukraine, climbing from 11th to 4th place with €349 million in authorisations, despite the ongoing armed conflict
A robust presence of “new markets” that are consolidating, such as India, Brazil, Indonesia and Singapore
A continued (if reduced compared to recent years) and concerning presence of the UAE, Turkey, Qatar and Turkmenistan, given their human rights situations

Considering regions, North Africa and the Near/Middle East account for 37,03% of the total, followed by EU and European NATO countries (31,73%), Asia (12,65%) and North America (6,08%). The dominant weight of the Middle East (amplified in 2025 by the mega-licence to Kuwait) must not obscure a structural finding: even excluding Kuwait, exports to countries with longstanding human rights problems and authoritarian governance remain a significant component of Italian arms sales.

THE UKRAINE CASE: A PERSISTENT ANOMALY

As noted, Ukraine has returned to the top of the list of Italian arms destinations with €349 million in individual authorisations, rising from 11th to 4th place. This raises, once again, unresolved questions: Law 185/90, the ATT and the EU Common Position set strict criteria (and often an explicit prohibition) for exports to countries engaged in active armed conflict. Yet for three consecutive years, commercial sales worth hundreds of millions of euros have been authorised to Kyiv. As highlighted in previous years’ analyses, the Report provides no details on the specific categories of materials authorised under these commercial licences (which are distinct from the direct government-to-government military support to Ukrainian armed forces approved by Parliament). Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo reiterates its call for Parliament to explicitly address commercial export authorisations to Ukraine as well, as required by the spirit of the law and the international norms Italy has signed.

ISRAEL: NO NEW LICENCES, BUT SUPPLIES CONTINUE

As in 2024, Israel does not appear among the recipients of new individual export authorisations in 2025. UAMA (the Foreign Ministry office responsible under the law) has confirmed the suspension of new licences, citing the nature of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. This is a positive development that deserves recognition.

However, data from the Customs Agency confirms that this decision has not halted the physical shipment of military materials under licences issued before October 2023. Definitive transfer operations to Israel in 2025 are a total of 228, with an annual value of €3.037.416,79; these are supplemented by 296 re-export operations worth an additional €19.603.918,09. In total, over €22,6 million in Italian military materials were shipped to Israel in 2025, all traceable to licences issued before the formal suspension of new authorisations. Moreover, in 2025, 4,30% of Italy’s arms imports still originate from Israel (approximately €85 million out of €1,977 billion total), confirming that military exchanges between the two countries have not ceased despite the ongoing war in Gaza.

Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo reiterates that the suspension of new authorisations must be accompanied by a review of still-active pre-existing licences and by an explicit and comprehensive ban on any supply to Israel until the conflict and violations of international humanitarian law have ended.

THE COMPANIES: LEONARDO DOMINATES, NEW PLAYERS EMERGE

Analysing data on companies involved in arms exports, it is clear that concentration in the Italian defence sector has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. The top 15 exporting companies account for 90,44% of the total authorisation value, and the top four operators alone cover 69,32% of the total: Leonardo SpA with 54,09% — a sharp increase from its 27,67% share in 2024, indicative of large centralised contracts; IVECO Defence Vehicles SpA with 7,44%, a new entrant in the top 4; RWM Italia SpA with 4,62% — the presence of this bomb and munitions manufacturer, already controversial for supplies to Saudi Arabia used in Yemen, remains concerning; and MBDA Italia SpA with 3,17%. The disappearance of Fincantieri from the top 4 (it was second in 2024 with 22,62%, thanks to the mega-contract for vessels to Indonesia) and the rise of IVECO and RWM are factors that merit thorough parliamentary scrutiny, particularly regarding the final destinations of the authorised systems.

A STRUCTURAL TREND THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED

Lining up the data from recent years, the picture is unambiguous:

2022: €5.289 billion in individual authorisations
2023: €6.311 billion (+19.3%)
2024: €7.948 billion (+25.9%)
2025: over €9.164 billion in total outflows (+19.14%)

In three years, individual export authorisations have nearly doubled. According to SIPRI estimates based on multi-year indicators, Italian international arms trade has increased by 157% over the past five years, placing Italy sixth in the global ranking of arms exporters.

This growth is not coincidental: it reflects deliberate industrial and defence policy choices, driven by the global rearmament climate and a race for foreign markets that rewards large contracts without always ensuring adequate oversight of final destinations and the use of transferred weapons systems.

THE THREAT TO TRANSPARENCY IS NOT OVER

This year’s Report was produced with a consistent structure and a reasonable level of detail, and Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo considers this a positive aspect. However, the structural threat to transparency has not been averted: an amendment to Law 185/90 currently being debated in Parliament (already passed by the Senate, not yet scheduled for a final vote in the Chamber) would significantly reduce the data the Government is required to transmit to Parliament, in particular by eliminating the section on banking financial flows. If this amendment were to be confirmed, next year’s Report on 2026 authorisations could lack the crucial information needed to understand who finances the foreign trade of Italian arms and to what extent.

For these reasons, Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo confirms its vigilance on the matter and its full support for the “Basta favori ai mercanti di armi” (“No more favours for arms dealers”) campaign, calling on Parliament to: reject the regressive amendments to Law 185/90; guarantee a more complete annual Report with analytical data by material type, quantities and value for each individual authorisation; and open a serious, public debate on a sector worth billions of euros that directly touches on peace, human rights and Italy’s international credibility.