Lockheed Martin
6801 Rockledge Dr
Bethesda, MD

Selling weapons and weapons systems is a $26.5 billion a year business for
Lockheed Martin, one of the nation's top defense contractors. And more war
means more business -- earnings for 2002 were up 11% or almost $3 billion
from 2001.

Lockheed Martin is also one of the nation's top lobbyists. In the last
election cycle, it spent a remarkable $1.96 million on federal campaigns. In
the 1999-2000 election cycle, Lockheed spent even more - $2.7 million.

Ties to the Bush administration are strong and pervasive. Vice President
Cheney's wife, Lynne, is a former Lockheed board member. Undersecretary of
the Air Force Peter B. Teets is a former Lockheed President and Chief
Operating Officer, one of eight members of the administration who is a
former associate or major investor in Lockheed. As Governor of Texas,
President Bush had a close relationship with Lockheed -- he tried to give
them a contract to run the Texas welfare system but ultimately relented to
public pressure.

In 2000, Lockheed spent $9.8 million on lobbying efforts to win a $200
billion deal to build the next-generation Joint Strike fighter -- the most
lucrative contract in Pentagon history.

Lockheed's other big ticket item, the F-22 fighter, is an extraneous $70
billion program that has managed to survive bipartisan critiques that the
Cold War weapon is a gross waste of taxpayer money.

Lockheed stands to benefit quite handomsely as the Pentagon budget continues
to call for record growth. Bush's proposed 2004 budget calls for $380
billion for defense, with $20 billion increases for each of the next five
years. (When Bush took office, the Pentagon budget was less than $300
billion).

Bush's decision to reverse two decades of nuclear arms policy and invest in
a new generation of nuclear weapons (likely influenced by Lockheed and other
weapons contractors) is also a big boost for Lockheed's bottom line.

For more, see The Arms Policy Institute:
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/
http://www.peace-action.org

Also see the Corporations and National Security issue of the Multinational
Monitor; http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01november/nov01toc.html

Last Updated March 26, 2003