This report compares the policies for civil-military technology cooperation (CMTC) of six nations (France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and the European Defence Agency (EDA). ADD, Korea, commissioned FOI, Sweden, to perform the study.
The concept of ‘dual-use’ is treated quite differently in different nations. In this report, we see dual-use as three different flows of technology:
- spin-on denotes that technology developed in the non-military sector can be utilized in military applications;
- spin-off denotes that technology developed in the defence sector can be utilized in the non-military sector;
- spin-up denotes that there is a shared commitment and interest among actors from both sides to develop a certain technology. Actors from each side will contribute with their knowledge and technology – both sides will learn from the other and also strive to mutually create some novel technology combination.
The standpoint in this report is thereby that dual-use concerns the unidirectional flows between civil and military technology, whereas CMTC also comprises the spin-up phenomenon.
The study shows that France and Korea have clear national policies and invest heavily in CMTC-related activities with a yearly budget of about USD 90 million. Korea is however expansive, whereas France’s efforts in CMTC have been shrinking in recent years. Sweden has had, for more than two decades, a strong commitment towards CMTC in aerospace technology, but has no explicit dual-use policy in general. The UK has a clear policy of only searching for non-military technologies that can be used in defence. The UK does not invest in spin-off or spin-up at all; the MoD is only allowed to fund very specific defence technology. The UK puts resources into identifying technologies for spin-on. Germany has non-transparent, decentralized CMTC activity, performed by institutes and industry. Defence R&D is a sensitive issue in Germany; there is CMTC-relevant innovation, but there is no explicit policy to support it. Russia has strong rhetoric about strengthening its defence-industrial base and its defence-relevant innovation. Russia invests in broad development in bio- and nano-technologies, which are intended to produce civil as well as military technologies in the long run. Russia, however, has fundamental difficulties in maintaining its innovation infrastructure, and its visions for CMTC have limited credibility.
The CMTC policies of these nations and EDA have been compared, based on eleven competitive factors: CMTC policy consistent with defence policy, triple helix infrastructure, defence-related clusters of companies, access to CMTC funding, internationalization of CMTC investments, internationalization of defence industry, SME growth initiatives, human capital (CMTC relevant), dual-use demonstrators, CMTC match-making and processes for CMTC procurement.
Based on these comparisons, we recommend that the CMTC institute at ADD:
- increases the participation of academia in their CMTC activities;
- strives to increase the degree of internationalization of its CMTC activities, with Germany, France and Sweden (in that order) as the best targets;
- strives to increase the domestic support from other ministries by more clearly showing the benefits for both civil as well as military innovation.
Stockholm: Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut (FOI) , 2016. , p. 145
dual-use, dual use, military inovation, civil-military innovation, national policy, synergies, spin-up, technology readiness level, TRL