The domestic market has a relatively older stock of machine tools and therefore appears rather slow to adopt new process technology, compared to those of other industrial nations. The U.S. machine tool industry's failure to market its products strongly overseas has thus, probably, cut it of f from sources of more sophisticated demand than those available at home. If so, it has correspondingly reduced its incentives to innovate. Many believe that, especially in Japan, government guidance has been critical to the international success of foreign machine tool industries. In addition, the close working relationships between foreign industry and universities are absent in the United States.
Many defense contractors are highly capable of developing their own sophisticated tools.
It would be undesirable, too, to pass on this role to foreign suppliers, however competitive they might be. In outlining a plan for a more comprehensive study of the industry's potential contributions to defense needs, the committee has concentrated on these characteristics. Such a comprehensive study must begin by setting boundaries on the field of investigation somewhat wider than the machine tool industry's traditional limitation to metal-removing equipment, taking into account new materials and the information technologies of control and systems integration. Then, with such a definition in hand, a further study can assess the health of the industry, and its ability to serve Defense Department needs. The following outline embodies this committee's recommendations as to how such a study should proceed.