DEFENCE INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS BASED ON INDUSTRIAL PARKS: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE FOR UKRAINE
Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of international approaches to the formation of defence industrial clusters based on industrial parks and to the identification of mechanisms that may be adapted to the development of Ukraine’s defence industry. The international experience of leading aerospace clusters in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States is analysed. Attention is paid to production cooperation, research integration, cluster governance, public support, innovation infrastructure, participation of universities and research organisations, and interaction between large companies and SMEs. The comparative analysis is carried out not according to the scale or economic performance of individual clusters, but according to the criterion of their institutional and functional relevance to Ukrainian conditions. It is substantiated that Aerospace Valley (France) is the most relevant case for Ukraine because its model combines production cooperation, scientific and technological integration, public support, specialised cluster management and integration into European value chains. The study shows that the competitiveness of defence industrial clusters depends not only on the spatial concentration of enterprises, but also on the quality of interaction between business, science, education, public authorities and development institutions. Based on the synthesis of cluster theory, the concept of industrial parks and international practices of aerospace clusters, an authorial conclusion is formulated that an industrial park should be considered not merely as a production territory, but as an institutional platform for the formation of a defence industrial cluster. In this capacity, the industrial park can integrate manufacturing, research, educational, investment and managerial resources, reduce transaction costs, accelerate technology transfer and innovation, support the localisation of high-tech production and facilitate the integration of Ukrainian enterprises into international value chains and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB).
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