The U.S. Defense Industry

However the world of the Pentagon changed dramatically with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concerns which Stiglitz voiced in 1986 and largely irrelevant to the defense spending issues on 1993. He states on the first page of his chapter on Defense "that the commitments made in the early 1980s will have implications for defense expenditures in the late 1980s . . . and because these new military systems will require ongoing expenditures in maintenance and personnel, they have implications for defense budgets into the 1990s." In 1993 t

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monopsonist. After research and development is completed and production begins, the prime (as opposed to sub) contractor exercises less technologically-based monopoly power for that weapon system (Wilson, p. 590). If any buyer--whether the U.S. or foreign military service--needs such hardware with given specifications and capabilities, the contractor is in a powerful price-making position. In reality, however, there are often similar weapon systems from suppliers in the U.S. and other countries whose specifications, capabilities, and/or price effectively make them competitive. And this is further complicated by international political alliances, which lessens the available choices. For example, the U.S. does not allow the sale of certain advanced weaponry to various Arab nations in the Middle East. In response, nations in the Middle East have often turned to Western Europe and the ex-Soviet Union for military planes, tanks, and the like with similar capabilities, but also at a cheaper price with U.S. weaponry being the most expensive usually. Thus, after production of a weapon system is actually occurring, the market situation tends to be somewhat more competitive than in the research and development phase with both few su
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cold War, Department Defense, Soviet Union, Western Europe, Lockheed Dynamics, Connecticut Dynamics, War Iraq, Boeing Vertol, Borsage M2, Sea Wolf, defense industry, prime contractors, m2 6, cost overruns, department defense, research development, cold war, specifications capabilities, borsage m2 6, weapon system, defense military, specifications capabilities contractor, research development phase, competition major considerations, nations middle east,
Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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