GLOBAL military spending has risen to $1.8 trillion (about £1.4tn) — the highest levels since records began more than 30 years ago, with the United States leading the way in the deadly arms race, according to new research.Second union calls on Centrica to block bosses' £2.4m pay rise

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) annual report revealed that in 2018 Washington spent as much on its military as the next eight largest-spending countries combined, accounting for $649 billion of the $1.8tn global total.

An increase of 4.6 per cent in spending compared to 2017 reflects the first rise of its kind “in the last seven years,” according to Sipri researcher Dr Nan Tian, who said this was likely to grow.

The US has “started to implement a new modernisation programme of the military that will start in 2019 or 2020.

“This is in the region of $1.8tn over the next 20 years. It is a massive amount of money being spent by the US — and it ranges from conventional weapons to nuclear capabilities.”

The US is involved in the sale of arms to brutal regimes across the world including Saudi Arabia, whose deadly bombing of Yemen has pushed the country to the brink of the worst famine in more than a century.

The reactionary gulf kingdom spends a massive 8.8 per cent of its Global Domestic Product (GDP) on its military, although it saw a decrease in spending levels of $4.6bn in 2018.

The increase in global spending is partly attributed to the development of new technologies, with countries looking to gain a military advantage on grounds of national security.

Figures showed the biggest military spending increase was by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian regime in Turkey, which saw a massive 24 per cent increase in 2018 to $19bn, the highest annual percentage increase among the world’s top 15 military spenders.

Ankara invaded the peaceful city of Afrin in northern Syria in January 2018 on the pretext of fighting terrorism, although is accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kurds, large numbers of whom have been driven out of the area following the military intervention.

The report shows that the total military spending levels of all 19 Nato members was $936bn, 53 per cent of the world’s total.

Nato member states are being pressed to meet a pledge of a minimum of 2 per cent of GDP to be used for military spending.