This article attempts to situate recent developments in the land armaments industry in France in the international economic context and highlight the main consequences. The progress made by the British group BAE Systems clearly changes the landscape, previously dominated by US companies in Europe, with the emergence of a duopoly at the top, General Dynamics and BAE Systems, whose partly misleading appearance is shown. But these developments above all lead to a questioning of a certain idea of land armaments in Europe that should be taken into account, and an effort is needed to improve economic performance in this sector in France.
The Land Armaments Industry-An International Economic Issue
The two-year gap between each Eurosatory exhibition at Le Bourget allows us to assess the evolution of tendencies in land weapons on a regular basis, outside temporary fluctuations. Among other considerations it allows us to test future hypotheses, and to revise them in a sensible way.
Three principal tendencies emerge from the scene in 2004:(1)
• A decline of our country’s activity in this sector, which can be traced back to the 1970s.
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