US weapons sales hit a record high in 2011, according to a congressional report.<br /><br />The country sold $66bn worth of arms last year, tripling the number it sold in 2010. The previous record was $31bn in 2009.<br /><br />The report said that the sales were driven by countries in the Gulf region, where tension centred around potential military action against Iran has been building.<br /><br />The biggest customer for the US arms industry was Saudi Arabia, according to the report.<br /><br />All in all, the US sold 78 per cent of the world's arms in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8bn in arms sales.<br /><br />Al Jazeera speaks to Richard Weitz, the director for the Centre for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, about the significance of the latest revelations.