The arms industry, also known as the defense (or defence) industry or military industry is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and other military technology to a variety of customers, including the armed forces of states and civilian individuals and organizations. Products of the arms industry include weapons, munitions, weapons platforms, communications systems, and other electronics, and related equipment. The arms industry also provides defense-related services, such as logistical and operational support. As a matter of policy, many governments of industrialized countries maintain or support a network of organizations, facilities, and resources to produce weapons and equipment for their military forces (and sometimes those of other countries). This is often referred to as a defense industrial base. Entities involved in arms production for military purposes vary widely, and include private sector commercial firms, state-owned enterprises and public sector organizations, and scientific and academic institutions. Such entities perform a wide variety of functions, including research and development, engineering, production, and servicing of military material, equipment, and facilities. The weapons they produce are often made, maintained, and stored in arsenals. In some regions of the world, there is a substantial legal trade in firearms for use by individuals (commonly cited purposes include self-defense and hunting/sporting). Illegal small arms trade occurs in many countries and regions affected by political instability.
History
Military technology evolved slowly until the 19th century when a quartet of factors suddenly globalized the arms trade. First, accelerating technical innovation created a shifting frontier of desirable weapons. Second, the development of mass production allowed technically advanced weapons to be exported at scale. Third, private firms, rather than government arsenals, became leaders in the manufacture of arms. And finally, global communications and transport networks facilitated long-distance trade. Early leading arms makers included Schneider-Creusot, Krupp, Vickers, and Armstrong Whitworth. These firms were encouraged both by market conditions and by their home nations to export far outside of Europe to areas such as South America, Asia, the Near East, and Africa as part of the 19th century vogue for imperialism. During the early modern period, England, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands became self-sufficient in arms production, with diffusion and migration of skilled workers to more peripheral countries such as Portugal and Russia. The modern arms industry emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as a product of the creation and expansion of the first large military–industrial companies. As smaller countries and even newly industrializing countries like Russia and Japan could no longer produce cutting-edge military equipment with their indigenous capacity-based resources, they increasingly began to outsource the manufacture of military equipment, such as battleships, artillery pieces and rifles to foreign government military entities. In 1854, the British government awarded a contract to the Elswick Ordnance Company to supply the latest loading artillery pieces. This galvanized the private sector into weapons production, with the surplus increasingly exported to foreign countries. William Armstrong became one of the first international arms dealers, selling his systems to governments across the world from Brazil to Japan. In 1884, he opened a shipyard at Elswick to specialize in warship production – at the time, it was the only factory in the world that could build a battleship and arm it completely. The factory produced warships for foreign naval forces, including the Imperial Japanese Navy. Several Armstrong cruisers played an important role in defeating the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. In the American Civil War in 1861 the North had about ten times the manufacturing capacity of the economy of the Confederate States of America. This advantage over the South included the ability to produce (in relatively small numbers) breech-loading rifles for use against the muzzle-loading rifles of the South. This began the transition to industrially produced mechanized weapons such as the Gatling gun. This industrial innovation in the defense industry was adopted by Prussia in its 1864, 1866, and 1870–71 defeats of Denmark, Austria, and, France respectively. By this time the machine gun had begun entering arsenals. The first examples of its effectiveness were in 1899 during the Boer War and in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. However, Germany led the innovation of weapons and this advantage in the weapons of World War I nearly defeated the allies. In 1885, France decided to capitalize on this increasingly lucrative trade and repealed its ban on weapon exports. The regulatory framework for the period up to the First World War was characterized by a laissez-faire policy that placed little obstruction in the way of weapons exports. Due to the carnage of World War I, arms traders began to be regarded with odium as merchants of death and were accused of having instigated and perpetuated the war for earning their profits from weapons sales. An inquiry into these allegations in Britain failed to find evidence to support them. However, the sea change in attitude about war more generally meant that governments began to control and regulate the trade themselves.
For much of the time after the First World War, a national defence industry was treated by many countries as an element of their national sovereignty, and the emergence of collaborative international projects did not occur until the latter part of the Cold War. The volume of the arms trade greatly increased during the later 20th century, and it began to be used as a political tool, especially during the Cold War when the United States and the USSR supplied weapons to their proxies across the world, particularly third world countries (see Nixon Doctrine).
Sectors
Land-based weapons
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