Chapter 5
Guns and Ammo
This chapter is an interesting example of the potentially far-reaching consequences of failing to secure your intellectual property. In the modern era of total concept to product automation manufacturing, the loss of even a few Computer Aided Design (CAD) files are potentially enough to sink your business. In recent years, the use of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems have become very popular in the design and manufacture of arms as the military requests more complex systems in a crowded market where the lowest bidder is usually going to be awarded the procurement contract.
CNC systems are used to mass produce weapons to an exact specification with an absolute minimum of human interaction—sometimes only assembling the completed parts. A side effect of this approach is that CNC systems are easily available, relatively inexpensive, and can generate rapid return on investment. That, coupled with the fact that CNC instruction documents needed to drive...