War on terror good for defense firms in US http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2005/08/21/2003268632 DPA , NEW YORK Sunday, Aug 21, 2005,Page 12 US defense contractors are riding high these days, buoyed by rising Pentagon spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the high cost of homeland security in the US-declared war on terror. The fiscal 2006 defense budget is set to climb to US$441 billion, an increase of US$21 billion over this year. It envisions an additional US$50 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Congress plans to approve US$79 billion for weapons systems procurement and about US$69 billion for military research and development. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Honeywell and United Technologies have all done well in the first half of this year and have a huge backlog of orders. With US President George W. Bush and Congress ready to spend, they can expect robust sales for years to come. Lockheed Martin, the biggest US defense contractor and top seller of secure computer systems, saw net profit jump 41 percent to US$830 million in the first six months of this year. Half-year sales rose to US$17.8 billion from US$17.1 billion in the same period last year, despite a drop in deliveries of F-16 fighter jets that cut into warplane sales. Lockheed, which is also strong on missile defenses, integrated electronic combat systems and military space programs, projects sales for this year of up to US$38 billion and has orders worth another US$73 billion. Boeing, the second-largest commercial aircraft maker behind Airbus, is also the second-largest US defense contractor. Sales in the first two quarters of the year were up 8 percent to US$27 billion. Earnings dropped 10 percent to US$1.1 billion due to one-time charges related to its commercial aircraft operations, but that didn't dampen the company's outlook. Boeing's military division posted sales of US$15.3 billion in January-June, an increase of 5 percent. Operating profits rose 16 percent to US$1.7 billion. Another big prize would be a US government contract for mid-air refueling tankers, where Boeing is competing with the European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Company (EADS). Boeing also coordinates Future Combat Systems (FCS), an ambitious US$125 billion project aimed at making US soldiers more effective on the battlefield by integrating new weapons and communications systems. Almost all US defense contractors are participating. At the end of June, Boeing had military orders of USS$85.7 billion. Northrop Grumman, which specializes in warships, warplanes, information technology and space, has US$57.1 billion on its order books. Half-year earnings rose from US$534 million to US$776 million last year on a decline in sales to US$13.4 billion from US$13.4 billion. Raytheon, best-known for military electronics and weapons systems, saw sales rise 8 percent in the first half of the year to US$10.4 billion.
What is strange is that most conservatives claim that the profit motive is the only really strong reliable motive in society. They then act jaw droppingly shocked, enraged or claim that one must be a raging conspiracy theorists (black helicopter nuts) if it is even hinted that perhaps the great corporations which make more money if their is war, would somehow be in favor of war, which increases their profits.
I heard shares of 3M were going up, lol. Is anyone either shocked....or denying that defense contractors make money when the country is at war?
Not an appropriate analogy. Nazi Germany wasn't hemmed in tight and incapable of militarily defeating its neighbors with a no-fly zone over more 2/3 of the country, and UN insepctors able to go around and inspect the NAzis facilities. What was going on in regards to Iraq was anything but appeasement.
Elitist bankers are the biggest profit makers of war, that's why they decide when and where to have them and they finance both sides. The industrialists serve the bankers. Fiat currency and central banks has the whole world by the ... uh.. throat. The owners of the nation's central banks, the control of the IMF, World Bank, these are the ones who politicians bow down to and giant corporations tremble before. The bankers let the industrialists prosper when it serves their interest and they let the socialists triumph when it suits their purpose. Whoever controls the worlds banks, controls the world's governments. So I am for kicking the U.N., the IRS, and the Federal Reserve out of the U.S.- revamping the greatest industrial - maufacturing nation the world has ever seen, getting completely out of debt to the global central bankers and making America the greatest nation on earth. If that doesn't work then I am for shutting up and minding my own business.
