Pentagon's Big Six Suppliers Are Unchanged

Singapore -- The relative positions of the top six US defense contractors, measured by the scale of their business with the Pentagon, were unchanged in 1999 over the year before, with Lockheed Martin occupying the top slot with contracts worth $12.7 billion. Runner-up Boeing notched sales of $10.9 billion, the US DoD disclosed last week.

Third on the list was Raytheon, followed by General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and United Technologies, while Litton Industries, principally a supplier of warships to the USN and advanced electronics systems to the military, improved its relative position from eight to seventh place with business worth $2.1 billion against $1.6 billion in 1998.

Total value of all contracts issued by the Pentagon in l999 was $125 billion, almost $7 billion more than the year before.