This is a Career Advancement Award supported under the Research Opportunities for Women Program and the Political Science Program. The broad purpose of this type of award is to enable promising female scholars the opportunity to increase their research productivity and to contribute to their respective disciplines. With this award, the investigator will develop expertise in and carry out a study of weapons procurement. The central question of this research concerns the production of workable weapons systems and the technology that is needed to produce them. The political science contribution concerns an evaluation of the relation between military needs and the production of workable systems. This Career Advance Award will provide release time for the principal investigator and allow her to do the requisite background research for the study. The award will also enable the investigator to gain the technical skills necessary to undertake this stream of research.