It isn't so much the use of silver in weapons development ; Its more the world wide scope of armament, the degree advanced armament, of the countries both producing and buying at this time, and lastly what the future portends. And it portends a whole lot of advanced missiles, drones, A.I. algorithms, and other stuff straight out of a Sci Fy movie. I'm in my late '60s, a USAF veteran, and even I find it hard to believe the advancement in weaponry just in my life time. Look at the exponential growth since just the Gulf war when only a tiny amount of weapons were considered "smart". In the opening days of a Hyper-War conflict today virtually 100% of munitions expended would be considered "smart".
And heres the thing. Advancements in technology dont happen at a set "established" pace that anyone controls. In effect they happen at a pace thats exponential that nobody controls. To imagine this imagine a snowball rolling downhill going faster and faster, getting larger and larger, the more time its rolling. Thats the pace of technological innovation especially in such a sensitive area as defense is. One that we know uses a whole lot of silver. And thats why in 2025 America will import a record amount, and percentage of, silver despite our own ample stocks.
And were not a little player when it comes to production ; Were in the top 10 and I'd bet the only reason we aren't bigger are the environmental controls we enforce, that, and the ease of secure import chains.
But tho I can't put a number on it the use of silver in defense production is huge and the production lines for our high tech weaponry and devices are going full steam. As are those of others. The same can be said of nickle in WW2 production when the access to the huge nickle mines in Canada, which we still have, allowed us the ability to become the Arsenal of Democracy in producing the nickle/steel alloys which allowed us to make the weapons that won the war.
In contrast Germany, and especially Japan, had big problems with their nickle supplys and supplys of other critical minerals and metals. The ME-262 Jet Fighter and Type XXl submarine, both war winning weapons, had their production delayed due to the problems they had getting advanced alloys for both. The ME-262 alone, and programs of other jet fighters, suffered from the Germans being unable to import and produce cobalt, nickel and chromium alloys for their engines, limiting the lifespan of a jet engine to 25 hours with an overhaul every 10 hours.
The exponential use of silver in both Industrial, Military, and civilian use will I believe only grow. I dont think it could be stopped even if we wanted to because the world has become, more and more, a high technology/electronic world.