International weapons market challenges U.S. firms.

• Position: From the National Defense Blog

The U.S. weapons industry is the 800-pound gorilla in the global arms market. But maintaining that dominance could become increasingly difficult, experts warn, as buyers demand more economic benefits from arms purchases.

U.S. companies will continue to be favored in competitions for advanced systems that few countries can produce such as high-tech military aircraft and missile-defense systems. But they may struggle in the Future to win international deals based on technological merits alone, said Peter Nicholas Lengyel, president and CEO of Safran USA, the American subsidiary of France's aerospace giant Safran Group.

In most...