Global Arms. International Operations of U.S. Defense Firms
Abstract
The nature of international markets confronts U.S. firms with a variety of difficulties: global overcapacity, the demand by foreign customers that U.S. firms offset trade imbalances created by large arms sales, and the interest of the United States in checking the worldwide proliferation of defense technology and advanced weaponry. Global overcapacity exists in many sectors of the defense industries. In civil industry, the typical response to overcapacity is that increased competition drives the less efficient producers out of business. But due to national security considerations, the United States and other nations have chosen to subsidize indigenous defense production. The burden of supporting defense overcapacity has been acute in Europe for many years. As a consequence, European governments engage in extensive international collaboration in weapons development, have adopted lenient defense export policies, and have encouraged their defense companies to produce simultaneously for national consumption and export markets. Because of the rapidly escalating costs of weapons systems and reduced production runs, U.S. defense planners and industrialists are now experiencing similar pressures to reduce the number of suppliers and to share the costs and risks of development more widely-through domestic teaming arrangements and increased international collaboration in defense technology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA497055
Entities
Organizations
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency