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The rise in world levels of armaments is best indicated by figures on the amount of resources devoted to military uses--military expenditures--of which the greater share since WWII is absorbed by military research & development. Military expenditure reflects the trend in the lethal power of weapons although in the short run this is not necessarily so since nuclear weapons are enormously more lethal but with no corresponding increase in expenditure. The US & the USSR have by far the largest military budgets, followed by the UK, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, & China. The massive strategic nuclear forces of the US & the USSR & the continuing qualitative improvements have grave consequences for world security. The continuous acquisition of more sophisticated & more capable weaponry occurs in increasingly more countries of the world--less industrialized countries with the most advanced domestic defense industries are China, India, South Africa, & even Argentina & Brazil. The 4 main arms-producing countries--USA, USSR, UK, & France--dominate the rapidly growing trade in weapons with, in particular, Third World countries. This spread of sophisticated weaponry has obvious effects for the minimum level of conflict, should conflict break out, clearly evidenced by the war in Viet Nam & the Arab-Israeli war. 9 Tables, 2 Figures. AA.

I develop a theory explaining how states decide how much armament to acquire. The theory treats states as unitary optimizers choosing between guns and butter, and it offers a novel exposition of the role intentions play in armament decisions-how they are perceived, and how their assessment interacts with the assessment of power. One of the results deduced from the theory is that if statesmen worry about intentions more than about power, then high arms levels possessed by one state will be matched by low arms levels possessed by another, this prediction sharply contradicts conventional wisdom about the nature of arms-races. Statistical analysis of the Superpowers' cold war interaction-which supports the theory-is briefly discussed.

When setting a tactical-technical task on constructing a sample of armament, not only its characteristics related to purpose are considered, but its operational and technical, technological, economic, and other characteristics as well. The totality of characteristics defines the military-technical level of the armament sample. Typically, such variants of armament sample are considered that differ by the set of characteristics. For comparative estimation of armament sample variants in terms of military-technical level, it is necessary to apply appropriate methodical provisions. Resolving the task on comparative evaluation of armament sample options was made possible by consistently solving four problems. In solving the first problem, the decomposition of the totality of characteristics of an armament sample into the following three levels has been performed: properties, properties' components, indicators. The scientific result from the first problem is a methodological approach to comparative evaluation of armament sample options based on the consideration of the characteristics' significance when ranking the variants of an armament sample using a method of multi-criteria analysis. Solving the second problem helped establish the order of staged expert estimation of coefficients for the properties' significance, properties' components, and indicators, using a pairwise comparison method, which makes it possible to take into consideration their impact on the military-technical level of an armament sample. The result from solving the third problem of the current study is the algorithm for comparative evaluation of an armament sample using a taxonomy method. The reported algorithm makes it possible to rank the variants of an armament sample taking into consideration the significance of indicators that define their military-technical level. Our decomposition of characteristics, using a pairwise comparison method for expert estimation of their significance, as well as a taxonomy method, has made it possible to obtain an ...

This book aims to provide a complete exposure about armaments from their design to launch from the combat aircraft. The book details modern ammunition and their tactical roles in warfare. The proposed book discusses aerodynamics, propulsion, structural as well as navigation, control, and guidance of aircraft armament. It also introduces the various types of ammunition developed by different countries and their changing trends. The book imparts knowledge in the field of design, and development of aircraft armaments to aerospace engineers and covers the role of the United Nations in peacekeeping and disarmament. The book will be very useful to researchers, students, and professionals working in design and manufacturing of aircraft armaments. The book will also serve air force and naval aspirants, and those interested in working on defence research and developments organizations.

This study explores the extent to which defense spending of the European nations of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact since 1950 can be characterized as an action-reaction process. Since the level of armament expenditures in any state is an outcome of organizational processes, a model is introduced that represents the "normal" growth of defense spending as a function of bureaucratic momentum. Deviations from these expected levels are then treated as reactions to the potential adversary's pattern of military spending and/or to the fluctuations of tension in Europe. The most important findings are (a) the comparatively low influence of action-reaction and international tension–as opposed to that of bureaucratic momentum, and (b) the differential impact of the hostile alliance's armament expenditures and of tension on, respectively, the NATO nations and the Warsaw Pact countries.