[VengefulCynic]

Large defense contracts tend to span large numbers of Congressional Districts in order to enable the sort of economic protectionism that keeps the F-35 and JTRS funded to the tune of billions of dollars, in spite of cost overruns and schedule deficiencies.

I would be shocked if this lead to significant site consolidation due to the backlash that this would cause from Congress. If anything, this will enable Raytheon (the company with more defense content) to use United Technologies facilities to create a larger network of appreciative Congressmen for large projects.

[drtz]

Exactly: Raytheon is going to have considerably more lobbying power after this merger.

[r00fus]

Exactly - this is a merger to increase revenue, not necessarily cut costs.