WASHINGTON — Only half of aerospace and defense companies are actively investing in research and development, according to a survey of industry executives released Monday.
The 14th annual survey conducted jointly by IT firm CSC and the Aerospace Industries Association also found that two-thirds of the 98 respondents from the commercial and aerospace and defense sectors have increased spending on cybersecurity during the last year. Of those, almost half (29 percent) have increased their spending on cybersecurity by 25 percent or more, while fewer than 5 percent said they had decreased their cybersecurity budgets.
Almost half — 48.6 percent — said their vulnerability to cyber threats has increased significantly or somewhat during the past 12 months.
Respondents were split almost down the middle on whether their firms are investing in R&D. For those who said they were, the most popular areas for investment were cyber, UAVs and electronic warfare. Directed energy, alternative energy and hypersonics were mentioned by between 15 and 40 percent of respondents.
Those opting against R&D investment cited instability in the defense budget outlook 64.5 percent of the time. They also blamed low returns or profits on military programs (just under 30 percent), the sale not justifying surrendering intellectual property (around 25 percent) and the high cost of government regulations (around 13 percent).
"In response to pricing pressures and lower government spending, A&D [aerospace and defense] companies are becoming more selective in their R&D investments and are more focused on product innovation and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes," Tim Ellis, CSC industry general manager for aerospace & defense, said in a prepared statement. "Technology modernization is crucial for nearly every organization, and they're exploring many ways to modernize, including using commercially available software as a service, migrating certain applications to the cloud, and integrating systems for better data-sharing."
The survey questioned 98 executives and other personnel, who were almost evenly split between commercial officials (51 percent) and those who deal with government contracts (49 percent). Firms with 10,000 or fewer employees or lessaccounted for 51 percent of respondents, while those with between 10,000 and 50,000 employees comprisinged 22.3 percent. Large firms with more than 50,000 employees represented 27.7 percent of respondents.
Email: aclevenger@defensenews.com
Twitter: @andclev
