This book develops a model for analyzing the relationships of the defense industry with the productive infrastructure, the political constraints, and the technological capabilities of a semi-industrialized country. This model is used as the base for the analysis of the defense industries of semi-industrialized Latin-American countries that have shown a proven capacity to produce and export indigenous defense equipment: Argentina, Brazil and Chile. The defense industries of these three countries are described and analyzed in depth, with the objective of determining the reasons for their varying performance and of assessing the effects, positive or negative, on their respective national economies.