Introduction

Buying arms appears to be a simple process: the armed forces decide on their requirements and buy from arms producers who meet their requirements at the lowest price. Reality is different, and buying arms is a much more complex process. It is not like buying a car, television or mobile phone, all of which exist and can be sampled before buying. Armed forces often require weapons that do not yet exist and have to be “tailor made” for the military. Also, governments usually interfere with armed forces procurement choices as they pursue military–strategic interests and wider economic benefits by buying arms from national suppliers. These claimed military and wider economic benefits need to be assessed critically and costed. For example, buying from national arms producers can be costly and risky compared with purchasing existing arms “off the shelf” from overseas suppliers. This chapter assesses the arguments.

Buying arms is a complex process

Arms buying involves choices about what to buy, who to buy from, how to buy and when to buy.

What to buy?

The armed forces and governments have to decide the type of equipment needed. This requires an assessment of future threats and the available budget, where both threats and budgets are characterized by uncertainty. Moreover, uncertainty is increased where the arms required do not yet exist and have to be developed and produced for a specific national requirement. Here, the armed forces have to specify the operational performance of the weapons they need (e.g., speed and range of combat aircraft, firepower of tanks), which might involve major technical advances, further increasing uncertainty. Technical change might render current arms obsolescent. Examples include the development of ballistic rockets replacing long-range strategic bombers, nuclear weapons replacing large-scale conventional forces, jet engines replacing propeller aircraft, and UAVs replacing manned aircraft. Further complications arise where governments interfere with arms procurement choices for military–strategic interests and wider economic benefits.

Who to buy from: choice of contractor?

Once a requirement has been formulated, a contractor has to be selected, either using competition or direct negotiation with a preferred supplier.