Implications of military engineering

The author examines the effect the defence sector is having on the overall performance of UK industry. Although it competes for much the same pool of skill and financial resources, there are many factors which separate the defence sector from civilian industry. Lengthy timescales, design for performance rather than cost, and lack of commercial market disciplines characterise the military side. There is an often expressed hope that military innovations will `spin-off´ to civilian applications, but it appears that this phenomenon is becoming rarer. The question is whether the capability in defence technology which the UK expects is achieved only at the expense of a decline in civilian industrial capability on which our economic security depends