ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issues of Third World performance with conventional weapon systems. A factor of increasing importance in choosing military technologies is the desire on the part of Third World nations to develop indigenous defense production capabilities, to reduce political dependence, further programs of industrialization, create jobs, and accrue hard currency savings from import substitution or through export sales. Important factors in determining the ultimate choices of weapons or technologies are funds, access, and interest in promoting indigenous production capability. As Third World regional powers have progressed with industrialization, most have sought to develop a production base for military equipment and a science and technology sector that would permit them to assimilate and adapt foreign technological advances and to generate domestic military technologies. To the extent that combat performance enhancement measures are designed to perform offensive, rather than defensive, roles, however, they may prove destabilizing.
