Author(s): Wonseok Choi, Sukjae Jeong, Jang Yeop Kim
The primary purpose for a country developing weapon systems is to strengthen its defense capability. However, recently developed countries are attempting to enhance their arms trade position toward emerging markets in order to maintain its competitiveness in the global defense market. However, there is a significant distinction in weapon systems from general products; thus, there are demands to convert these into products that can be exported. Thus, strategic decisions at the stage of developing weapons systems are required, such as comparing the competing and substitute weapon systems and selecting the emerging markets. This paper proposes a modified five forces model to aid in evaluation of the export competitiveness of a developing weapon system to address the following issues: (1) Entry barrier level of the existing competing weapon system, (2) Threat level of a substitute weapon system, (3) Possibility of acquiring core technology, and (4) Identification of the potential purchasing country and the marketing strategy for a weapon system. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered as a case study for the validity and applicability of the proposed model.