Its high level of detail, while often useful, can also obscure the issues. Currently, the industry is struggling to understand what rules it should be playing by in order to survive and maximise profit. Thus far, the State is not adequately providing that guidance. The minimum efficiency scale is rising, indicating that small businesses will not be able to compete and deals will have to include more and more subsidies and offsets. Ultimately, a small country cannot support a large defence industrial base.
Military spending carries a considerable opportunity cost that negatively impacts economic growth.
Money spent to support the defence industry could be used elsewhere, in sectors which promise much greater growth potential. Prof. Dunne emphasised the need to recognise that maintaining an industry that is simply not economically viable is not a simple rational process. Special interests are at work, and in the end transparency will suffer. DIB can be treated as International DIB Globalisation offers South Africa the opportunity to look at other options for its production capacity. Rather than seeking to protect a declining industry, it should be acting as an intelligent customer in the market.