20 Companies Profiting the Most From War

Source: boozallen.com

20. Booz Allen Hamilton
> Country: United States
> Arms sales: $4.0 billion
> Total sales: $5.8 billion
> Profit: $252.0 million
> Employees: 23,300

Based in Virginia, consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has clients in both the private and public sectors. Once called the world’s most profitable spy organization, the company is working for several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, and branches of the U.S. military. While much of the company’s business is confidential, it provides intelligence and data analysis, engineering, and cybersecurity services in many aspects of defense. Defense and intelligence contracts alone accounted for over two-thirds of the company’s revenue in fiscal 2017.

The company’s partnership with the U.S. government goes back to 1940, when it began advising the Secretary of the Navy in preparation for U.S. involvement in World War II. Booz Allen Hamilton’s relationship with the U.S. government has been close since. Some 30% of the company’s workforce are veterans, and 70% have security clearance.

Source: aoosk.ru

19. United Shipbuilding Corp.
> Country: Russia
> Arms sales: $4.0 billion
> Total sales: $4.5 billion
> Profit: $90.0 million
> Employees: 89,650

United Shipbuilding Corp. is one of two Russian companies to rank among the top 20 arms producing and military services companies in the world. While the company manufactures a range of commercial shipping vessels, its military vessels account for the majority of its business. The company manufactures or is developing 11 different models of military submarines and 16 different warships, in addition to a variety of vehicles used as minesweepers, landing ships, and patrol vessels.

United Shipbuilding was established in 2007 by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is now the largest shipbuilding company in Russia and the broad geographic region between the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean. United Shipbuilding vessels comprise nearly the entire Russian Naval fleet.

Source: Alexander Koerner / Getty Images

18. Harris Corp.
> Country: United States
> Arms sales: $4.2 billion
> Total sales: $5.9 billion
> Profit: $553.0 million
> Employees: 17,000

Florida-based government contractor Harris Corp. reported $5.9 billion in revenue in 2016 — the vast majority of which came from arms sales and military service. The company’s divisions include electronic systems, which provides products and services related to electronic warfare, avionics, undersea systems, and air traffic control, as well as communication systems, which manufactures night vision and tactile communication products. The company has clients in over 100 countries. Standing contracts include lucrative deals with the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Special Operations Forces.

The company’s history with the U.S. government stretches as far back as WWII, when U.S. bombers began using Harris Corp.’s newly developed bombsight that enabled more precise bombings at high altitude.

Source: Leidos / Facebook

17. Leidos
> Country: United States
> Arms sales: $4.3 billion
> Total sales: $7.0 billion
> Profit: $246 million
> Employees: 32,000

Leidos is a defense contractor based in Reston, Virginia. The company, which was known as SAIC until it spun off part of its operations in 2013, was awarded its first long-term government contract was 1970 by the now defunct Defense Nuclear Agency. Soon after, the company also provided support to weapons development projects of the U.S. Air Force and cruise missile development projects of the Department of Defense. Today, the company is heavily involved in a global underwater arms race, developing unmanned submarines to shadow otherwise virtually undetectable Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan submarines that could pose a threat to U.S. interests.

Leidos revenue from military services and arms sales in the 2016 calendar year totalled $4.3 billion, a 29.1% increase from the previous year.

Source: Rolls-Royce plc / Flickr

16. Rolls-Royce
> Country: United Kingdom
> Arms sales: $4.5 billion
> Total sales: $18.6 billion
> Profit: N/A
> Employees: 49,900

Rolls-Royce is one of only two defense contractors based in the United Kingdom to rank among the world’s 20 largest arms and military services companies by arms sales. Primarily known as a luxury automaker, the company’s arms sales and military services accounted for just 24% of its revenue in 2016.

Rolls-Royce is currently the only company in the world manufacturing engines that allow fighter jets to take off vertically. The company’s vertical lift jet technology is currently used by the U.S. Marine Corps. Other military-grade products Rolls-Royce develops include rotary engines for medium and heavy lift air transport vehicles, engines for long range patrol aircraft, and an engine for unmanned aerial vehicles.