ABSTRACT
British science and technology policy has long been dominated by defence interests. From the late 1960s until well into the 1980s, half of government expenditure on research and development (R&D) went on defence, and the percentage was even higher in earlier years. Britain has an extensive defence industry, with current capabilities in all the main areas of defence equipment except for long-range missiles, heavy bombers and large aircraft carriers. United Kingdom (UK) defence industry depends critically upon arms exports, while the economy benefits from the associated foreign exchange revenue and jobs. UK finds itself promoting international controls on the sale of weapons and the diffusion of dual-use technologies, while also actively seeking to promote arms exports. The search for security of the defence industrial base via dual-use technologies has to deal with the fact that militarily relevant technologies are increasingly available even to countries without elaborate defence technological capabilities.
