The top 100 largest arms dealers earned $531 billion in 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The 2020 earnings marked the sixth-straight year of growth and were 17 percent higher than 2015, when SIPRI began tracking Chinese firms. The 41 U.S. contractors on the list sold the most arms, earning $285 billion—a 1.9-percent increase over 2019, SIPRI said. Of those, Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp, and General Dynamics Corp. accounted for more than a combined $180 billion in sales during 2020—about one third of all sales. Chinese firms were the second-most active, with the country’s five largest companies selling an estimated combined $66.8 billion of arms in 2020—1.5 percent more than in 2019, according to the Stockholm-based conflict research institute. “In recent years, Chinese arms companies have benefited from the country’s military modernization programs and focus on military-civil fusion,” said SIPRI senior …