Defense Industry

The purpose of the Defense Industry is to design and manufacture weapons and technology to provide the United States and its allies with the ability to protect its citizens and national interests over land, air, and sea. In recent decades the industry has made huge advancements and the market has grown drastically. The defense industry was first developed during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s during World War I and II with aircraft and the atomic bomb; from then it continued to grow slowly until the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Since then, the defense industry has sky rocketed and new technologies are being developed constantly to neutralize new threats that combat the country all the time. These threats include physical, chemical, biological, cyber-attacks, and even missile threats. As new threats arise, new defense technologies must be designed to protect the country in new ways. These systems are now improving other areas of civilian life besides just national security. For example, different forms of identity recognition are now commonplace at airports and other areas where security is high priority. That technology is now in most cellphones, tablets, computers, and other devices.

Due to the nature of the technology and its required reliability in the field of national security, the defense industry and the weapons and systems that are manufactured are extremely expensive. It is a lucrative industry for contractors who design and manufacture these defense weapons and sell them to the military. Because this technology is so expensive, there are certain specifications the manufactures have to follow known as “mil-specs,” or military specifications. When these defense technologies first started being designed during World War I and II, the parts that allies were using were made using different standards and different measurement systems. If a subcomponent of a system had to be replaced, the parts were not regularly interchangeable and those costs came at a premium. Military specifications require that components can be used on several different systems and a form of standardization began to take place to cut down on those unnecessary costs. This standardization caused by military specifications allowed compatibility with other components and weapons in the defense industry. As a result of military specifications, the interfaces of several weapon designs were understood across different weapons and thus yielded greater usage and were easier to implement with other systems. Military specifications ensure proper performance, maintainability, and easy reparability because the soldiers know how all the newly standardized weapons work.

The ability of the United States and its allies to standardize the defense industry with Mil-Specs has allowed them to hold the largest market share of the defense industry in the world. This is necessary as the United States is a world superpower and constantly faces new threats against the country. The rise in the Defense Industry gives the country the ability to protect its citizens and its national interests all over the globe.