Russia has remained the world's second-largest exporter of weapons and military hardware in recent years with a 17 percent share of the global market, Russia's sole state intermediary agency for exports and imports of defense-related products Rosoboronexport said Monday.

"Over the past five years, the company's exports accounted for 15 percent of world exports of military products, and Russia's total share was about 17 percent," a Rosoboronexport statement quoted its Director General Alexander Mikheyev as saying.

Rosoboronexport managed to enlarge the value of orders for its products to 45 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year from 42 billion previously, Mikheyev said without specifying the details for comparison.

The greatest demand for Russian military products in 2016 was shown by countries of North Africa and Asia.

The head of Rosoboronexport said that the use of Russian weapons in real combat conditions contributed to the growing demand for the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, Su-35 and Su-32 fighter jets, as well as Iskander-E operational-tactical missile system, the portable Verba anti-aircraft missile system and a number of other weapons and military equipment.