From Military Labs to Everyday Life

How military research has produced technologies used in everyday life, and the debate over whether defence spending is a good way to fund innovation.

Many technologies that shape everyday life began as military projects. The internet, GPS navigation, jet engines, radar and early computers all owe much to defence research. Economists study these spillovers to understand how military spending affects innovation.

Famous examples

The internet grew from ARPANET, a computer network funded from 1969 by the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, now called DARPA.
GPS was developed by the U.S. military and later opened for civilian use. It now supports navigation apps, farming, shipping and financial systems that rely on precise timing.
Radar, developed intensively during the Second World War, led to technologies including air traffic control and the microwave oven.
Jet engines were developed for military aircraft before transforming civilian air travel.

Dual-use technology

Technologies with both military and civilian uses are called dual-use technologies. Because defence departments can fund risky, long-term research that private firms would avoid, they have sometimes pushed technologies to the point where civilian markets could take over.

Research by economists including Enrico Moretti, Claudia Steinwender and John Van Reenen has found that government-funded defence research can increase private research spending by firms in the same industries, rather than simply replacing it.

The talking computer

Speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies, now used in screen readers and voice assistants, benefited from decades of research, some of it funded by defence agencies interested in automated translation and communication. Blind users today rely on technologies whose early development had very different aims.

The debate

Is military spending a good way to fund innovation? Critics point out that only a small share of defence budgets goes to research, and that the same money spent directly on civilian research might produce more useful innovations. Military research can also be secretive, limiting how quickly ideas spread. Supporters reply that defence agencies’ willingness to take long-term risks has produced breakthroughs civilian programmes might not have attempted.

Thinking war is needed for innovation

Military research has produced important technologies, but that does not mean war or military spending is the best route to innovation. Many breakthroughs come from civilian science, universities and companies. The lesson is that ambitious, long-term public research funding matters, whatever its source.

Key takeaways

The internet, GPS, radar and jet engines all have roots in military research.
Dual-use technologies serve both military and civilian purposes.
Defence research can encourage additional private research in the same industries.
Critics argue civilian research spending might produce more useful innovation per dollar.