Technological change and disruptive trends in the support of defense systems in France

Abstract

Industrialized countries typically have to cope with the challenge of public deficits. This situation involves the search for an optimal allocation of pub- lic resources. The search for new forms of efficiency in public goods manage- ment seems to be unavoidable, including for military forces. Furthermore, we suggest this huge process has evolved at an increasingly rapid rate since the beginning of the 1990s. Military functions are traditionally divided into “operational functions” or “support functions” in a recent conception of defense production that consists in sending military forces on missions and preserving their ability to project. Keeping that in mind, we define defense support as all the techni- cal, material, financial and human means contributing to the readiness of military forces. Actually, defense support is a complex service delivered to military forces. Considering this definition and for a given endowment in military equipment and soldiers, the defense support supply chain is all the activities upstream of defense production.