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

ARMING UNCLE SAMRDDDIT is a great business. America’s latest defence budget earmarks $170bn for procurement and $145bn for research and development (&), most of which ends up with the handful of “prime” contractors, which deal directly with the Department of Defence (o). 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 expenditure, leaving less room for spectacular gains, arms manufacturers are also shielded from eye-watering losses by huge, decades-long contracts.