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Abstract
This paper examines defense industrialization in three leading arms-producing states in Asia – India, Japan, and South Korea – and how their experiences compare to China's recent defense industrial developments. It argues that despite decades of considerable effort and investments in pursuit of a techno-nationalist self-arming strategy, these countries have experienced only modest success when it comes to achieving such self-reliance. Most regional defense industrial bases lack the necessary design skills and technological expertise in order to truly innovate, and at best these countries act as ‘late innovators’ when it comes to armaments production.
The experiences of these countries have lessons for China as it attempts to move into the first tier of arms-producing states. China has over the past 15 years made significant progress in modernizing its defense technological and industrial base. At the same time, China faces the same long-term challenges that currently confront other regional arms industries – that is, making techno-nationalism work at the later stages of innovation. This is particularly critical as China's defense industry strives to move from a basically platform-centric to an increasingly network-centric technological–industrial process.
Notes
1Extrapolated from Elisabeth Sköns and Eamon Surry, ‘Arms Production’, in SIPRI Yearbook 2007 (Oxford: OUP 2007), 345, 347–8.
2Keith Hayward, ‘The Globalization of Defense Industries’, in Richard A. Bitzinger (ed.), The Modern Defense Industry (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO 2009); Richard A. Bitzinger, ‘The Globalization of the Arms Industry: The Next Proliferation Challenge’, International Security 19/3, (Fall 1994), 170–98.
3Although there are no generally agreed upon criteria for how arms-producing nations may be compartmentalized, it is customary to divide the global defense industry into three or four tiers, with the lower tiers less advanced than the higher tiers. For a fuller discussion of three different sets of criteria, see Keith Krause, Arms and The State: Patterns of Military Production and Trade (Cambridge: CUP 1992), 26–33; Andrew L. Ross, ‘Full Circle: Conventional Proliferation, the International Arms Trade, and Third World Arms Exports’, in Kwang-il Baek, Ronald D. McLaurin, and Chung-in Moon (eds.), The Dilemma of Third World Defense Industries (Boulder, CO: Westview Press 1989), 1–31; Richard A. Bitzinger, Towards a Brave New Arms Industry? (Oxford: OUP 2003), 6–7.
4Richard J. Samuels, Rich Nation, Strong Army: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 1994), ix.
5Alison Peet and Samm Tyroler-Cooper, ‘Chinese Aviation Industry: Annual Review of Progress and Innovation’, paper prepared for the Conference on China's Defense and Dual-Use Science, Technology, and Industrial Base, San Diego, California, 1–2 July 2010, 7.
6Samuels, Rich Nation, Strong Army, 42–56.
7Peet and Tyroler-Cooper, ‘Chinese Aviation Industry,’ 9–10.
8Ajay Singh, ‘Quest for Self-Reliance,’ in Jasit Singh, India's Defence Spending (New Delhi: Knowledge World 2000); Deba R. Mohanty, Changing Times? India's Defence Industry in the 21st Century (Bonn: Bonn International Center for Conversion 2004); Rahul Bedi, ‘Two-Way Stretch’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 2 Feb. 2005; Manjeet S. Pardesi and Ron Matthews, ‘India's Tortuous Road to Defence-Industrial Self-Reliance,’ Defence & Security Analysis 23/4 (Dec. 2007); Deba R. Mohanty, Arming the Indian Arsenal (New Delhi: Rupa 2009).
9Laxman Kumar Behera, ‘Background Paper on India's Defence Industry: An Overview’, prepared for the National Seminar on the Defence Industry, New Delhi, 23–24 Jan. 2009, 4.
10Behera, ‘Background Paper on India's Defence Industry’, 2–6.
11Brian Cloughly, ‘Analysis: DRDO Fails to Fix India's Procurement Woes’, Jane's Defense Weekly, 28 June 2010.
13Vivek Raghuvanshi, ‘Indian Research Agency Agrees to Tech Transfers’, Defense News, 25 Jan. 2010, <www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4468940&c=POL&s=TOP>.
14Bedi, ‘Two-Way Stretch’; Shiv Aroor and Amitav Ranjan, ‘6000 cr Wasted, 10-year Delay and They want 150,000 cr More’, Sunday Indian Express, 12 Nov. 2006; Manoj Joshi, ‘If Wishes Were Horses’, Hindustan Times, 19 Oct. 2006.
15Samuels, Rich Nation, Strong Army; Michael E. Chinworth, Inside Japan's Defense: Technology, Economics, and Strategy (Washington DC: Brasseys 1992); Michael J. Green, Arming Japan: Defense Production, Alliance Politics, and the Postwar Search for Autonomy (New York: Columbia UP 1995); Christopher W. Hughes, ‘The Slow Death of Japanese Techno-Nationalism? Comparative Lessons for China's Future Defense Production’, paper produced for the Conference on China's Defense and Dual-Use Science, Technology, and Industrial Base, San Diego, California, 1–2 July 2010.
18‘TRDI and KHI Explain C-X and P-X Development Process’, retrieved 12 March 2010, <www.japanaerospace.jp/english/biz_topics.html>.
19Jong Il Choi, ‘South Korea’, in Ravinder Pal Singh (ed.), Arms Procurement Decision Making, Volume I: China, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand (Oxford: OUP 1998), 183.
20Choi, ‘South Korea’; Janne E. Nolan, ‘South Korea: Ambitious Client of the United States,’ in Michael Brzoska and Thomas Ohlson (eds), Arms Production in the Third World 1971–1985 (Oxford: OUP 1987), 218–19; Dean Cheng and Michael W. Chinworth, ‘The Teeth of the Little Tigers: Offsets, Defense Production, and Economic Development in South Korea and Taiwan,’ in Stephen Martin (ed.), The Economics of Offsets: Defence Procurement and Countertrade (London: Harwood 1996); Richard A. Bitzinger and Mikyoung Kim, ‘Why Do Small States Produce Arms? The Case of South Korea’, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis (Fall 2005), 183–205; Chung-in Moon and Jae-Ok Paek, ‘Defense Innovation and Industrialization in South Korea: Assessments, Institutional Arrangements, and Comparative Implications’, paper prepared for the Conference on China's Defense and Dual-Use Science, Technology, and Industrial Base, San Diego, California, 1–2 July 2010.
21Kongdan Oh, ‘US–Korea Aerospace Collaboration and the Korean Fighter Project’, in Pia Christina Wood and David S. Sorenson (eds), International Military Aerospace Collaboration: Case Studies in Domestic and Intergovernmental Politics (New York: Ashgate 2000), 39.
22Choi, ‘South Korea’, 185.
23Cheng and Chinworth, ‘The Teeth of the Little Tigers’, 249; Choi, ‘South Korea,’ 199; Robert Karniol, ‘South Korean Industry: Learning Curve’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 22 Oct. 2003.
24 Agency for Defense Development (Daejeon: Agency for Defense Development 2008), 5.
25Moon and Paek, ‘Defense Innovation and Industrialization in South Korea’, 23.
26Bedi, ‘Two-Way Stretch’; Shiv Aroor and Amitav Ranjan, ‘Arjun, Main Battle Tanked’, Indian Express, 14 Nov. 2006; Shiv Aroor and Amitav Ranjan, ‘23 Yrs and First Fighter Aircraft Hasn't Taken Off’, Indian Express, 14 Nov. 2006; Laxman Kumar Behera, ‘The Saga of MBT-Arjun’, Defense Review Asia (June 2010), 20–2.
27Cloughly, ‘Analysis: DRDO Fails to Fix India's Procurement Woes’.
28Joshi, ‘If Wishes Were Horses’; Shiv Aroor and Amitav Ranjan, ‘Armed Forces Wait as Showpiece Missiles are Unguided, Way off Mark’, Indian Express, 13 Nov. 2006.
29Singh, ‘Quest for Self-Reliance’, 151.
30Aroor and Ranjan, ‘Arjun, Main Battle Tanked’.
31Pardesi and Matthews, ‘India's Tortuous Road to Defense-Industrial Self-Reliance’, 432–4; Singh, ‘Quest for Self-Reliance’, 148–9.
32Bedi, ‘Two-Way Stretch’; Rahul Bedi, ‘India Launches “Thorough” Audit of DRDO's Effectiveness’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 24 Jan. 2007; Rahul Bedi, ‘Making Decisions,’ Jane's Defence Weekly, 25 Jan. 2010.
33Bedi, ‘India Launches “Thorough” Audit of DRDO's Effectiveness’; Bedi, ‘Two-Way Stretch’.
34Vivek Raghuvanshi, ‘Private Firms to Bid for Indian Vehicle Project’, Defence News, 23 Aug. 2010.
35Jon Grevatt, ‘India Delays Defense Reforms Again in Face of Multiple Pressures’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 21 Dec. 2007; Guy Anderson, ‘India's Defence Industry’, RUSI Defence Systems (Feb. 2010), 69.
36Anderson, ‘India's Defence Industry’, 69.
37Bedi, ‘Making Decisions’.
38Hughes, ‘The Slow Death of Japanese Techno-Nationalism?,’ 11–12.
39 Defense of Japan 2009 (Tokyo: Ministry of Defense 2009) 164–66; Jon Grevatt, ‘Japan Proposes Defense Cut for 10th Year,’ Jane's Defence Industry, 18 Dec. 2009.
40-Richard A. Bitzinger, ‘Asia-Pacific Missile Defense Cooperation and the United States 2004–2005: A Mixed Bag’, in Satu P. Lemaye (ed.), The Asia-Pacific and the United States 2004–2005 (Honolulu, HI: Asia-Pacific Center for Security Policy 2005), 3.
41Hughes, ‘The Slow Death of Japanese Techno-Nationalism?,’ 19.
42Ibid., 26.
43Yukari Kubota, ‘Japan's Defense Industrial Base in Danger of Collapse’, AJISS-Commentary (10 May 2010) <www.jiia.or.jp/en_commentary/201005/10-1.html>.
44Hughes, ‘The Slow Death of Japanese Techno-Nationalism?’, 30; Jon Grevatt, ‘Briefing: Spending Dearth Withers Japan's Defense Industrial Base’, Jane's Defence Weekly, 1 Oct. 2009.
45Hughes, ‘The Slow Death of Japanese Techno-Nationalism?,’ 31.
46Author's interview with Michael Green, Feb. 2011.
47Moon and Paek, ‘Defense Innovation and Industrialization in South Korea,’ 1.
48Ibid., 8, 12, 14.
49Ibid.
50Moon and Paek, ‘Defense Innovation and Industrialization in South Korea’, 6.
51Dong Joon Hwang, ‘Economic Interdependence and its Impact on National Security: Defense Industry Cooperation and Technology Transfer’, paper presented to the National Defense Univ. Pacific Symposium, Washington DC, 27–28 Feb. 1992, 12–14.
52Bruce Dorminey, ‘Industry Watches as Korea Consolidates’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 2 Nov. 1998; Bruce Dorminey, ‘Government Spurns Korean Business Plan’, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 14 Dec. 1998, 20–31.
53Around the turn of the century, capacity utilization of the overall defense sector was estimated to be at around 60 percent – and only 36 percent in the case of the ordnance and ammunition sectors. See Cheng and Chinworth, ‘The Teeth of the Little Tigers’ 250; Choi, ‘South Korea’, 201.
55Moon and Paek, ‘Defense Innovation and Industrialization in South Korea’, 7.
56Bitzinger, Towards a Brave New Arms Industry?, 30–1.
57Bitzinger, Towards a Brave New Arms Industry?, 27–9.
58Gopal Ratnam, ‘The Rise of the Lead Systems Integrator’, Defense News, 21 July 2003 (Internet version).
59Raymond Vernon and Ethan B. Kapstein, ‘National Needs, Global Resources’, Daedalus (Fall 1991), 19.
60According to recent Chinese defense white papers, expenditures on equipment (including R&D) account for approximately one-third of the overall defense budget, which was approximately US$78 billion in 2010. The figures for defense R&D spending is based on a ‘reasonable assumption’ of about 5 to 7.5 percent of the overall military budget.