ASEAN Defence Industry Development

ASEAN Community is one of the fastest growing economic in the world despite being relatively peaceful and stabilized, the region is one of the global most lucrative defence market. The majority of state promotes and develops some degree of defence industry capability, driven by a number of motivations. This paper examines the motivations behind the defence industry development to be economic growth, threat to national security and sovereignty, Technology capability, self-reliance and finally, wealth. It underlines the importance of license production, FDI, joint venture, offset technology and knowledge transfers to the development and sustainability of defence industry. It also categorizes member states into tiers grouping based on technological capacity previously defined by Keith Klause, Andrew Ross and Richard Bitzinger. Finally, it provides a brief overview of ASEAN defence industry landscape, describes the current industrial capacity and R&D activity.