This bloated self-perception sometimes leads to Britain going it alone on military procurement programmes its smallish domestic market cannot justify. This can lead to a higher unit price, which leads to a lack of export success, which in turn keeps the unit price high.........
Agree 100%. Indeed that was the subject of my major presentation at Staff College. Support for British industry is, of course, a factor ... and other factors come into play too. But think of overseas sales of the L85 rifle, the debacle of NimWACS and several other UK-only projects that cost us a fortune and gained no traction at all in overseas markets, when comparable items were available broadly off the shelf from other sources.