Can America’s weapons-makers adapt to 21st-century warfare?

ARMING UNCLE SAM is a great business. America’s latest defence budget earmarks $170bn for procurement and $145bn for research and development (R&D), most of which ends up with the handful of “prime” contractors, which deal directly with the Department of Defence (DoD). So will some of the $44bn in American military aid to Ukraine and a chunk of the extra defence spending by America’s European allies, which account for 5-10% of the primes’ sales. Although those sums do not increase at the same rate as, say, corporate IT expenditure, leaving less room for spectacular gains, arms manufacturers are also shielded from eye-watering losses by huge, decades-long contracts.