Annual Sales $28.2 billion

Rank 6th (Revenue greater than $5 billion)

Average Five-Year Score Improvement 1st (up 20.9%)

BAE wrote the playbook for European firms on how to plug into the U.S. defense market, and has reaped the benefits of robust Pentagon spending and tremendous demand for combat vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.K.-based company leads the pack in TPC score improvement, reflecting its clear and consistent strategy, including focus on select geographic markets and divestiture of underperforming businesses. But probes into alleged bribery in a Saudi arms sale and performance problems on a few programs are distractions.