Who Profits from War
These five companies receive over $200 billion per year in government defense contracts. Their profits depend on conflict. Their lobbyists write the laws. Their former executives run the Pentagon.
$2.4T
Contractor Spending (2020-2024)
500+
Revolving Door Officials
$70M
Defense Lobbying (2023)
$285M
Campaign Contributions
$1.7T
F-35 Lifetime Cost
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
— President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961
Lockheed Martin
$65.4B
Annual Revenue
74%
From Government
$75B+
Gov Contracts
122,000
Employees
$12.5M/yr
Lobbying Spend
645
Revolving Door Officials
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — $1.7 trillion lifetime cost
Biggest Program
Products: F-35, F-22, THAAD, Javelin missiles, Sikorsky helicopters, satellite systems
World's largest defense contractor. Receives more federal contract dollars than any company on earth. CEO compensation: $25M/yr. Has employed more former Pentagon officials than any other contractor.
In 2023, Lockheed received $46B in direct DoD contracts — roughly $126M per day. The company spent $12.5M on lobbying and contributed $6.2M to political campaigns. 74% of its revenue comes directly from US government contracts.
RTX (Raytheon)
$68.9B
Annual Revenue
52%
From Government
$36B+
Gov Contracts
185,000
Employees
$8.7M/yr
Lobbying Spend
280
Revolving Door Officials
Patriot Air Defense System — deployed in 18 countries
Biggest Program
Products: Patriot missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, StingerMANPADS, radar systems, Pratt & Whitney engines
Merged with United Technologies in 2020. Former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sat on Raytheon's board before joining the Biden administration. Makes the missiles that Saudi Arabia drops on Yemen.
Raytheon weapons have been identified in strikes on Yemeni civilians, including a 2018 school bus bombing that killed 40 children. The bomb was a Raytheon MK-82. The company's stock price rose 60% during the first year of the Ukraine war.
Boeing
$66.5B
Annual Revenue
37%
From Government
$28B+
Gov Contracts
171,000
Employees
$11.8M/yr
Lobbying Spend
310
Revolving Door Officials
KC-46 Pegasus Tanker — $44B program, years behind schedule
Biggest Program
Products: F/A-18, F-15EX, KC-46 tanker, Apache helicopters, P-8 Poseidon, satellites
Also makes commercial planes that keep losing doors mid-flight. The KC-46 tanker is years behind schedule and billions over budget. Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997 — critics say the merger's cost-cutting culture led to both military and civilian quality failures.
Boeing has paid over $2.5B in fines and settlements for fraud, safety violations, and contract disputes since 2006. The company spent $11.8M on lobbying in 2023 and $7.3M on campaign contributions. Quality control issues have plagued both its commercial and military divisions.
Northrop Grumman
$39.3B
Annual Revenue
83%
From Government
$32B+
Gov Contracts
100,000
Employees
$13.1M/yr
Lobbying Spend
195
Revolving Door Officials
B-21 Raider — next-gen stealth bomber, ~$750M per plane
Biggest Program
Products: B-21 Raider stealth bomber, Global Hawk drone, James Webb Telescope, cyber warfare systems
83% of revenue from government — essentially a government entity with private profits. Built the B-2 stealth bomber at $2.1B each (only 21 built). Now building the B-21 at an estimated $750M each.
Northrop is the most government-dependent of the Big Five. The B-2 program's original estimate was $35B for 132 planes; final cost was $45B for 21 planes — a 600% per-unit cost overrun. The company spent $13.1M on lobbying in 2023, the most of any defense contractor.
General Dynamics
$42.3B
Annual Revenue
62%
From Government
$26B+
Gov Contracts
106,000
Employees
$9.2M/yr
Lobbying Spend
175
Revolving Door Officials
Columbia-class Nuclear Submarine — $128B program
Biggest Program
Products: Virginia-class submarines, Abrams tanks, Stryker vehicles, Gulfstream jets, IT systems
Builds nuclear submarines at $3.4B each and Abrams tanks at $10M each. Also owns Gulfstream — so they profit from war AND sell luxury jets to the executives who profit from war.
The Columbia-class submarine program is the Navy's #1 priority at $128B for 12 boats. General Dynamics also runs a massive IT business handling classified government systems. CEO compensation: $22M/yr.
🛩️ Case Study: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
$1.7T
Lifetime Program Cost
800+
Unresolved Defects
25+ Years
In Development
The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in human history. Originally estimated at $233B, the program has ballooned to over $400B in acquisition costs alone, with lifetime operating costs pushing the total to $1.7 trillion. The plane was supposed to be operational by 2012 — it's still not fully combat-ready.
A 2021 Pentagon testing office report identified over 800 unresolved defects. The plane's software alone required 8.6 million lines of code — more than the Space Shuttle, an aircraft carrier, and an Aegis destroyer combined. Yet Lockheed Martin continues to receive tens of billions per year for the program.
Why does it continue? Because Lockheed strategically placed F-35 suppliers in 45 states and 375 congressional districts. Cutting the program means cutting jobs in nearly every member of Congress's district. This is the military-industrial complex by design.
📊 The Pentagon Has Never Passed an Audit
The Department of Defense is the only federal agency that has never passed a comprehensive financial audit. It has failed every year since audits became mandatory in 2018 — seven consecutive failures.
The Pentagon manages $3.8 trillion in assets and spends $886B per year, yet cannot account for where the money goes. In 2023, auditors found $1.9 trillion in accounting adjustments — entries that didn't match any transaction. The DoD Inspector General has identified over $220B in “unsupported adjustments” in a single year.
If a private company failed an audit seven years in a row, its executives would face criminal prosecution. The Pentagon gets a budget increase.
🚪 The Revolving Door
Over 500 former senior Pentagon officials and military officers now work as lobbyists, board members, or executives for defense contractors. The flow goes both ways — defense industry executives regularly take senior positions in the Defense Department, then return to the private sector.
Between 2004 and 2008, 80% of retiring three- and four-star generals went to work for defense contractors or consultants. Former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sat on Raytheon's board. Former Secretary Mark Esper was a Raytheon lobbyist. Former Secretary James Mattis sat on General Dynamics' board.
This revolving door ensures that the people deciding how to spend defense dollars are the same people who profit from those decisions — before, during, or after their government service.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair
💡 Did You Know?
- • The top 5 defense contractors spend a combined $55M+ per year on lobbying Congress.
- • Defense contractor CEOs earn an average of $20-25M per year — roughly 300× what a deployed soldier earns.
- • The defense industry employs more registered lobbyists than there are members of Congress.
- • During the 20-year War on Terror, defense contractor stock prices increased by 1,000%+ while troop wages grew less than inflation.
- • Lockheed Martin's annual revenue exceeds the GDP of 100+ countries.