Guess who is the world’s biggest military contractor for 2023?
The U.S. publisher Defense News released its list of global top 100 defence firms, and there’s no surprise that once again, U.S. corporations dominate the lot.
At the top is Lockheed Martin, with a reported $63 Billion (USD) in revenues for 2022, with 96% of that coming from military customers. It has held the top spot for over 20 years.
Billions of Canadian dollars flow into Lockheed Martin Canada’s coffers for bombs, fighter jets like the F-35 stealth fighter, warships, transport planes, and high-tech systems too numerous to name.
Other U.S.-based corporations (although these are multinational companies) are Raytheon at #2 (now called RTX), Northrop Grumman at #3, Boeing at #5 and General Dynamics at #6.
Top 100 for 2023
The Defense News list includes companies from Europe and beyond, putting Aviation Industry Corporation of China at fourth biggest in the world. The researchers note that Turkish and South Korean firms are moving up the list, but admit the challenge accessing financial figures can skew the rankings.
For instance, privately-held companies that are not publicly traded don’t have to disclose financial information. This means that a company like Space-X, owned by Elon Musk, is not on the list despite the fact it is a critical space launch provider to the Pentagon and NASA. High-tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon are likely missing, even though they have very active military divisions.
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Canada’s arms industry is largely a branch-plant economy, with most U.S. and European companies having some presence in Canada, mostly to benefit from public subsidies or to fulfill limited job-creation and investment requirements written into government contracts.
The only Canadian firm listed on the Defense News Top-100 is Montreal-based CAE, a pilot-training a flight-simulation company with a reported $1.2 billion (USD) in revenues, 48% coming from defence.
(Cover: Lockheed Martin Canada)
