Defense industrial base

Defense industrial base

The term defense industrial base, also known as the defense industrial and technological base, is used in political science to refer to a government's industrial assets that are of direct or indirect importance for the production of equipment for a country's armed forces. It is loosely associated with realism, which views the state as the preponderant guarantor of security, and frequently features as an element of grand strategy and defense policy, as well as diplomacy.

Researchers and public figures critical of close ties among legislators, militaries and the defense industrial base due to a government's monopoly on demand for products of the latter employ the concept of the military–industrial complex to critique these connections.