Ukraine War Benefits U.S. Military Contractors

Oct 2, 2023

American military contractors have been the biggest winners in the Ukraine War, especially Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrup Grumman. The U.S. Pentagon has been feeding this war, shipping everything from state-of-the-art tanks and missile systems to helicopters, helmets, and ammunition to Ukraine at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.

So, while hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are killed and wounded, the big U.S. military contractors have been raking in record sales, leading to big increases in these companies’ stock prices. Since the war began in February 2022, Lockheed’s stock zoomed up by more than 40%, and it is at record levels.

And these companies have not just been profiting from the war in Ukraine. The Ukraine War has ignited a great big arms race. Governments around the world have gone on a spending spree. U.S. weapons exports increased by 40% in just the last year.

Of course, the U.S. is, by far, the biggest military spender in the world, accounting for 39% of global military spending, three times as much as China, and ten times as much as Russia. Today, the U.S. military budget is approaching a trillion dollars, the most U.S. military spending since World War II, when adjusting for inflation.

The U.S. working population is footing the bill for all that spending, as U.S. spending on food stamps, childcare, and health care for the working poor have all been slashed. These cuts have contributed to a big increase in poverty and hunger in this country over the last year.

This is one way that the drive for ever-greater profits by a few big companies is pushing the world into a bloody dead end.