Why arms companies do not act as one coordinated bloc

Defence companies compete with one another and often have sharply conflicting interests. Meetings among their representatives sometimes required mediation because rivalry between firms overwhelmed any shared identity as an arms industry. The pattern resembled Imperial Japanese Army-Navy rivalry, where institutional competition frustrated collective action despite immense resources. A later analogy describes medical companies and parts of the National Health Service as similarly tribal. The examples caution against explaining procurement or strategy as the work of one coherent corporate bloc.