Abstract
The article examines the problems of development of the military economy taking into account historical trends. The relationship between the military and civilian sectors is shown. It is assumed, that during a military conflict spending on defense and national security should be a priority, the government controlling the distribution of the resources, goods and services through rationing. When forming a mechanism for managing military-economic activities, special attention should be given to the effective use of resources allocated for defense needs. With that, one should keep in mind the contradiction between the unlimited military needs of the state and the limited resources that can be directed at any given time for defense purposes. Since the existing mechanism for managing Russia’s military economy does not fully meet modern requirements, a radical restructuring and improvement of this mechanism is needed to solve the existing problems.