The ordinary people just see a tiny part of the vast and complex business called the defense sector. Hundreds of companies, thousands of scientists, engineers and researchers strive to create innovative products that adapt to new battlefields and needs of the armies.
The competition for public money pie governments is fierce and bitter. National budgets of billions of euros to try to access these companies that promote products through trade shows, trade magazines and in whose name rarely advocate pressure groups ( Lockheed Martin , prime contractor in the U.S., spent $ 9.2 million on lobbyists in 2002, and in 2005 received Pentagon contracts for 19 billion dollars).
Some are reputable companies who dedicate certain departments to develop weapons, vehicles and all kinds of gadgets combat, and whose accounts, financial investments and actions merge with the rest of the economy.
In other cases, the states themselves are developing their products, or companies like Blackwater , which besides its private soldiers now offering their own rifles and tanks.
In addition to this part of the business, focusing on the creation and improvement of technology, there is another equally spectacular in which hundreds of companies provide services ranging from procurement of the troops , such as Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) , a former subsidiary Halliburton, through intelligence work.
Avalanche of innovations
Just follow a few blogs as Danger Room , issue of Wired , to become aware of the avalanche of innovations – some effective, others delusional or merely speculative projects – with moving this part of the global economy.
As anticipated in this blog two years ago, after covering the conflict in Gaza and the war in Lebanon, the drones, both combat and reconnaissance, have become the stars of modern warfare. The unmistakable sound of the “drones” was the background soundtrack of those brutal and bloody episodes.
Today, hardly a week goes by without it debuts a new model or go published the news of a new acquisition by any country.
Missing in action
On my recent trip to Afghanistan, I was struck powerfully the uniform design of U.S. soldiers with whom I was embedded. Instead of a traditional striped camouflage, carrying small pixels in pants, shirts and jackets.
It seemed almost childlike, even clumsy, or taken from a video game. But behind this design there are hundreds of hours of research , companies are struggling, new proposals that overlap with new proposals.
An example of the true size and business logic of war talk about it more carefully, and with more specific data and less general, in the next entry in this blog.