Weapons programs are criticized for cost overruns, delays in delivery and failure to meet their operational requirements. Critics focus on the power and influence of the military-industrial-political complex. This chapter addresses these controversial areas involving arms industries, alternative...

Voluntary military alliances, such as NATO, are often criticized for failing to exploit the opportunities for equipment standardization and free trade. However, nationalism means that governments adopt a variety of industrial policies for purchasing defense equipment, leading to departures from...

This chapter defines defense economics and indicates how it differs from other subfields of economics. The nature and topics of defense economics are presented. A brief history of the field is also reviewed. The current importance of defense economics in the post-cold war era is discussed....

Since the end of the Cold War, the world remains a dangerous place with new threats: regional conflicts, transnational terrorist networks, rogue states, and weapons of mass destruction (i.e., chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear). The second volume of the Handbook of Defense Economics...

This article addresses the relationship between European and U.K. defense industrial policy. It considers recent initiatives to create a European Defense Equipment Market and the U.K.’s Defense Industrial Strategy. The European and U.K. defense industries are evaluated and some of the future...

This paper assesses the UK aerospace industry’s competitiveness. Various statistical indicators are used to measure competitiveness, based on published data at the industry and firm level. The indicators include productivity, output, firm size, development time-scales, labour hoarding, exports...