[1] Writing in the late 1980s he said it was reasonable to assume that the next few decades would witness "the spiralling cost of the arms race, which is fuelled by the sheer expensiveness of newer weapons systems as well as by international rivalries.
"[2] Quoting the comment of Peter Mathias that "One of the few constancies in history... is that the scale of commitment on military spending has always risen"[3] Kennedy argues that this has become more important with time.
This forms a cyclical arms race where unit prices continue to increase but the balance of power remains the same.
Finally, many advancements increase the cost of a system but reduce the risk to platform and human lives.
However, as they allow for missions to be successfully flown with far reduced risk to the aircraft, the net result can be better overall value even at higher cost.