Defense Aerospace: Long-Term Contribution Trends | OpenSecrets

Over the last ten years, military contractors have given $66 million to candidates for Congress to try to influence current and future contracts -- see here for details:

Defense Aerospace: Long-Term Contribution Trends OpenSecrets

Defense Aerospace: Background

The hundreds of billions of dollars the federal government spends each year on defense are the reason defense aerospace firms make millions of dollars in campaign contributions, a majority of which has gone to Republicans since 1989. Defense aerospace contractors concentrate their political donations on members of the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees that allocate federal defense money. Prime targets of defense aerospace money also include members of the Armed Services committees, who influence military policy and have the power to create demand for this industry's commodities.

Lockheed Martin is the industry’s top campaign contributor. The company’s political investment paid off in 2001 when it secured a $220 billion deal to build the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter combat jets. The contract was the largest ever awarded by the Pentagon, and at $ 44.8 million for the basic version, the fighter costs 60 percent less than the F/A-22, Lockheed's most advanced jet.

Other top contributors in the industry include United Technologies, best known for its Sikorsky “Black Hawk” helicopters, and Boeing, the commercial airplane maker that has recently expanded its line of fighter jets, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles