Military Research and Development: Implications for the Civil Sector

Military research and development ( R & D ) , whatever its national security contribution, allegedly imposes substantial opportunity costs on the civil sector. A factual analysis does not support the view that military R & D has recently been or in the future will be a dominant reason: for funding and manpower shortages in civilian R & D, for the lack of technological supremacy in American industry, for the lack of technological solutions to major problems of domestic society, or for the emphasis on externally funded research in U.S. colleges and universities. Instead, financial trends suggest that an absence of demand for R&D in the civil sector and multiple funding opportunities for research in academic institutions are and will be more important causes of these problems. Military R & D can also provide learning for civil sector R&D. The experience of the Defense policy analysis organizations is particularly pertinent. It suggests that such organizations will be of continuing value to the civil sector to the extent that they serve several masters and release their results to legislative as well as executive officials. However, they are likely to encounter inadequate demand for their work as compared with that for hardware and suffer as their sponsors experience funding restrictions and sharp criticism of their programs.