[ecshafer]

All of the big defense contractors do this, it’s kind of astounding. Lockheed, Raytheon, etc. their offices are spread out over the country to give enough coverage in congressional districts where no one will be willing to kill funding for a project at the risk of their local plant closing.

[owlninja]

Also the contracts the big companies have with vendors across the country. They still purchase a large portion of their parts and talking to congress members about the jobs a program creates in their district is a strong data point.

[datavirtue]

The military-ness has now outweighed the engineering culture in those companies...making them effectively government agencies that are publicly traded. I don't have a positive outlook for any stakeholder.

[ecshafer]

IMO the only reason those companies are not literal divisions of the government is plausible deniability so they can sell things to other countries. I would guess 95% of their revenue is from the government, and they have very strict government regulations. If we just nationalized Lockheed and friends, I would be we could get improved efficiency.