ABSTRACT
This chapter examines defense conversion experiences in the Perm region from November 1991 to May 1993. It provides an analysis of the competitive advantage of military industries in the conversion process. The absence of obvious civil applications does not mean that they do not exist, but to be developed they require an organization to play the role of translator to foresee possible applications for advanced technology in unlikely areas. The defense industry should not be viewed as a uniform entity, as Hilton points out, because it does not consist of enterprises using identical resources and operating at the same optimum output. In the Perm region, hopes for dual-use technologies were attached primarily to the area's numerous aircraft engine design bureaus and production enterprises. Efforts to convert the Soviet military-industrial complex were initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev as early as 1989-1990. Military-industrial enterprises in the Former Soviet Union did not have to define market needs or to study demand.
