The U.S. Defense Industry After the Cold War

The U.S. defense industry is adjusting to the end of the Cold War far more rapidly and effectively than was generally expected. Current security decision-makers can count on the presence of a strong defense industrial base. But that situation cannot be taken for granted in the years ahead and judging the industrial base capacity is challenging. It requires us to deal with international issues during a time of domestic concern, to consider military outlays in a period of budgetary austerity, and to worry about the competition for the production of weapons systems when the economy is undergoing a wave of mergers, consolidations, and downsizing.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mlw_papers/1145/thumbnail.jp