The future of the defence firm: the case of the UK aerospace industry

The focus of this paper is the future of the defence firm within the context of the UK aerospace industry and its supply chain. The analysis considers aerospace markets and the aerospace industry in the UK before assessing the future of the defence/aerospace firm as a case study. The paper concludes that its future in terms of the strategic and important aerospace industry is uncertain. The corporate governance of the defence firm will have to change to reflect the hollowing‐out of the firm as the industry experiences significantly less vertical integration. The emphasis of the future defence/aerospace firm will be on ‘buy’ and not necessarily ‘make’. There will also be fewer independent defence aerospace firms as horizontal integration will occur across air, land and sea platforms as well as civil and defence aerospace firms. Indeed, conglomerate integration may even occur with cost pressures and market forces ensuring that merger activity goes beyond defence and aerospace into wider manufacturing industries and, in some cases, service industries in global markets.     

EFFECTS OF MILITARY SPENDING ON THE PROFITABILITY OF SPANISH DEFENCE CONTRACTORS

The traditional view of the defence industry obtaining large profits from contracts with the Ministry of Defence relies on several assumptions. Among these are the use of such arrangements as an instrument of industrial policy, the strong market power enjoyed by prime contractors, and the inefficiency encouraged by the sector. The findings show that defence contracts have a positive effect on profits, as well as the prizes for innovation and the market power enjoyed by some defence subsectors.     

A PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF THE SECURITY AND DEFENCE TECHNOLOGICAL AND INDUSTRIAL BASE IN SPAIN

This study analyses the performance of the productivity of the main industrial subsectors composing the security and defence technological and industrial base (SDTIB) in Spain from 1996 to 2009. Accordingly, we have used the non-parametric data envelopment analysis and bootstrapping techniques to compute Malmquist productivity indexes that allow us to split productivity growth into efficiency change and technical progress. The results obtained show productivity improvement in the SDTIB as a whole due mainly to advances in technology and to a lesser extent to the contribution of technical efficiency. The bootstrap approach yields further evidence, as for many cases, productivity growth or decline, is not statistically significant. This is the first time a study of this kind has been carried out on the production process of this sector in Spain.     

Remaking the military industrial relationship: A French‐American comparison

Defense industrial complexes in leading Cold War nations have downsized and reallocated resources to other productive activities in the 1990s. In this paper, we analyze the experience of two key countries ‐ the US and France. Comparing the two countries, we find similar outcomes in budgetary retrenchment and large firm restructuring but marked differences in the pace of downsizing and diversification among small and medium‐sized firms. We hypothesize that three sets of contextual differences may explain these differences: 1) institutional differences in the way that the State bureaucracies ‐ the Pentagon and the French Délégation générale pour l'armement (DGA) ‐ oversee defense industrial matters, 2) differences in military industry ownership and firm size patterns, and 3) differences in the regional distribution of defense industrial capacity and associated regional policies. In closing, we note that the two countries’ defense industrial complexes are becoming more alike and speculate on the significance of invidious competition and interactions between them. We address briefly the future of French/American arms industrial competition and cooperation, given the trend towards transnational security arrangements and defense industry globalization     

The defence industry supply chain: Linkage patterns in the south west of england 1

In this paper, new data from the south west of England are used to illustrate that defence dependent firms are likely to purchase more inputs locally than less defence‐dependent firms. The results confirm that the defence industry's supply chain has unusual characterises and that defence industrial restructuring is therefore, likely to produce different outcomes to previous rounds of manufacturing restructuring.     

远海作战装备供应链体系架构

信息化使战争的节奏加快,如何满足快节奏战争对装备的需求,无疑是军事保障领域值得研究的一个问题.供应链思想被引入军事物资保障系统后,已在多个领域发挥了显著的效用.建立装备供应链网络对提升远海作战装备供应能力既有现实意义又是可行的,这是因为：一方面信息化条件下远海作战需要更有效率的装备供应体系,另一方面企业供应链为装备供应链提供了可以借鉴的模式.本文通过对远海作战装备供应链目标和特征的分析,参照企业供应链和美军海上供应链建设的情况,建立了远海作战装备供应链网络,并对供应链流程进行了说明.     

基于功率拟合的时空相关K分布海杂波信号级仿真

为使海杂波的仿真与作战环境相结合,介绍了利用球不变随机过程(SIRP)仿真相关K分布杂波的方法。提出了一种基于功率拟合的时空相关K分布海杂波仿真方法,并结合具体的雷达波形实现了海杂波的信号级合成。通过仿真实验对方法进行了验证。     

Capable Companies or Changing Markets? Explaining the Export Performance of Firms in the Defence Industry

The paper presents an analysis of the factors explaining the export performance of firms in the defence sector. We focus on the case of Norway, and make use of two complementary methodologies: the first is based on econometric firm-level data analysis for the whole population of defence companies, and the second is based on qualitative case study research on the three most important defence export products (weapon stations, ammunition and electronics). Our empirical results highlight the importance of four major success factors for exporting firms: (1) the participation in offset agreements; (2) the ability to focus on their set of core competencies; (3) their R&D activities and interactions with the public S&T system; and (4) demand opportunities and, relatedly, user-producer interactions.     

舰艇机动穿越深海会聚区对潜艇探测研究

深海会聚区效应是深海水声传播显著的特征,并为远距离潜艇探测提供了有效途径。首先分析了深海会聚区形成的原因和条件,然后根据海区会聚区的预报距离和宽度,构建了舰艇采用两次机动穿越会聚区测算被探测潜艇的位置和运动要素模型,最后通过算例分析舰艇两次穿越会聚区的方法和求解潜艇运动要素和位置的过程,分析结果验证了舰艇穿越会聚区对潜艇定位方法的可行性。