The U.S. defense industry, flush since September 2001, may once again be facing a period of decline



President George W. Bush speaks to employees of United Defense Industries in California in May 2003. In the background is a Bradley fighting vehicle, made by the company and widely deployed during the initial U.S.-led invasion of Iraq two months earlier / Reuters

This post is part of a 12-part series exploring how the U.S.-Russia relationship has shaped the world since the December 1991 end of the Soviet Union. Read the full series here.

The 1990s might not have been a decade of peace, but they were for big, U.S. defense firms. After decades of working for a Defense Department oriented toward the defeat of the Soviet Union, they struggled to adjust. During the 1980s the Pentagon had spent billions of dollars on developing and improving expensive hardware -- tanks, submarines, fighter jets -- but, in the post-Soviet '90s, their appetite shrank.

In 1995, U.S. Defense Department procurement spending dropped below $50 billion for the first time since 1982.

This changed with the attacks of September 11, 2001, which began an historic period of prosperity for the U.S. defense industry. Now, much like the period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the industry faces a decade, or more, of adversity and softening political support for weapons spending. The defense industry is back at another crossroads, and the stakes for them are just as high.