The scale of destruction that was only beginning to be inflicted against the Palestinian people would not be possible without Lockheed Martin products. From the F-15 and F-35 warplanes conducting bombing runs, to missile launching platforms, and the missiles themselves, Lockheed Martin’s gallery has been instrumental to Israel’s war machine. 

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Making a Killing: Weapons of War

by Brian Chval / Women Against Military Madness Newsletter / Vol. 42, No. 2

In an appearance on CNBC on 17 October 2023, Jim Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed Martin, said: “There is no point in deterring Israel from a military operation. What’s the point? … There are conflicts that need to be resolved only with weapons – and we are ready to provide these weapons.” Obscured by this disinterested business posture is the immense profit that his company was already raking in from Israel’s horrific campaign on Gaza, just over a week after the slaughter began.

In fact, the scale of destruction that was only beginning to be inflicted against the Palestinian people would not be possible without Lockheed Martin products. From the F-15 and F-35 warplanes conducting bombing runs, to missile launching platforms, and the missiles themselves, Lockheed Martin’s gallery has been instrumental to Israel’s war machine.¹  Without that product line (along with those of its industry fellows) and its expedited delivery facilitated by the U.S. government’s massive aid packages, Israel’s murder of at least 35,000 Palestinians in seven months would have been impossible.

The role that Lockheed was set to play was well understood from the outset, as the company’s share prices soared nine percentage points by October 9th.² What defense industry CEOs like Taiclet are eager to portray as unfortunate geopolitical storm systems, compelling them reluctantly to accept the windfall, are anything but. In reality, these are the results of a world that Lockheed Martin, the defense industry, and its partners in the American government and media have helped to create. What to them is simply an advantageous business environment is experienced around the world as the hellfires of war and genocide.

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest military contractor, but it merely sits atop the vast military-industrial complex (MIC) centered in the U.S. The behemoth of the MIC – consisting of the interconnection of defense contractors, the Pentagon, elected officials, lobbyists, and media – is something most Americans are vaguely aware of. However, its enormity can be obscured by its ubiquity – i.e., it’s so pervasive that one might not recognize all its aspects.

How do we get to a base annual Pentagon budget of $886 billion³ plus added aid packages, over half of which is paid to private contractors?⁴ In short, companies like Lockheed Martin pay dearly to maintain a policymaking and media environment in which every problem can only be solved with an assortment of Lockheed missiles and planes. But for $67.6 billion in revenue,⁵ paying $5 million to political campaigns (average over the last five election cycles),⁶ $14 million a year on lobbying efforts,⁷ and a couple of million to fund prestigious think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Atlantic Council⁸ are small expenses.

From there, it’s not hard to understand that as the federal government acts as a broker for weapons manufacturers, bringing their goods to the market, another $95 billion in a foreign arms package was never really in doubt. The harvests in Israel and Ukraine have to be brought in, and Taiwan is still being sown. The blood which waters the crops is the cost of doing business.

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The defense industry also burrows its way into state and local economies. In Minnesota, for example, the State Board of Investment – entrusted with investments to feed public sector pension funds – has $56 million invested in Lockheed Martin and around $363 million total invested in weapons manufacturers.⁹ As well, defense companies operate several facilities in and around the Twin Cities, underwritten by taxpayer money: Northrop Grumman in Plymouth, General Dynamics in Bloomington, Lockheed Martin subsidiary Forward Edge ASIC in St. Paul, and a forthcoming BAE Systems facility in Maple Grove.

These investments and the facilities are sold as serving the public good by contributing dividends to the retirement funds or creating jobs. In reality, they undermine both while serving to make us complicit in the wars these companies perpetuate. The investments tie the solvency of the retirement funds to volatile stocks whose spikes in value are short lived and rely on new and expanding wars. The return on jobs is paltry at best, while sectors that create far more jobs relative to the money spent, such as education, green energy, health care, and infrastructure – sectors that could actually serve to create a better future – are grossly underfunded.¹⁰

At the same time that institutional investment and local facilities chain our communities to the American military-industrial complex and its atrocities, they also expose links in that great chain. Whether it’s demanding divestment via encampments at colleges and protests against a State Board of Investment or marching on these companies’ offices and factories to tell them they are not welcome in our communities, conscious people across the country seek to free us all and build a brighter future.

Brian Chval is an organizer with the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC). He was a researcher with AWC’s campaign to pressure the Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest from its holdings in apartheid Israel and genocide.

Endnotes

1.  “Lockheed Martin Corp | AFSC Investigate,” n.d. https://tinyurl.com/4dt4vzex.

2.  Saul, Derek. “Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Stocks Notch Best Days in Years Amid Israel-Hamas Conflict.” Forbes, October 9, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/4atdaprp.

3.  Christenson, Josh. “House Passes $1.2T Federal Spending Bill, Sending Measure to Senate Ahead of Midnight Shutdown.” Congressman Scott Perry, March 22, 2024. https://tinyurl.com/bdfubmnb.

4.  Contributor, Stephen Semler Opinion. “A Pentagon budget of $1 trillion is looming. Here’s how to stop it.” The Hill, April 27, 2024. https://tinyurl.com/mnecn4wd.

5.  Media – Lockheed Martin. “Lockheed Martin Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results,” n.d. https://tinyurl.com/33dh2r6x.

6.  OpenSecrets. “Lockheed Martin Profile: Totals,” n.d. https://tinyurl.com/4psvnamx.

7.  OpenSecrets. “Lockheed Martin Lobbyists,” n.d. https://tinyurl.com/yc4xxrnm.

8.  Ben Freeman, “U.S. Government and Defense Contractor Funding of America’s Top 50 Think Tanks,” The Center for International Policy, October 2020, https://tinyurl.com/mvr7cw64.

9.  Minnesota State Board of Investment. Public Market Asset Listing as of December 31, 2023. PDF, 2024. https://tinyurl.com/7wmkw6x.

10.  Garrett-Peltier, Heidi. Job Opportunity Cost of War. Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs, Brown University, 2017. https://tinyurl.com/9pnpn3fz.

    

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