Merger Mania: Should the Pentagon Pay for Defense Industry Restructuring?

Korb, Lawrence J., Brookings Review

McDonnel Douglas, Martin Marietta, Ling-Temco-Vaught (LTV). As the telltale compound names signal, mergers and acquisitions have long been a staple of the U.S. defense industry. But since the Clinton administration took office in 1992, the number of mergers has increased dramatically.

In 1991, military mergers were valued at some $300 million. By 1993, the value had climbed to $14.2 billion. It will top $20 billion in 1996. In 1993 Martin Marietta purchased General Electric's defense division and General Dynamics' space division. At about the same time Lockheed purchased General Dynamics' aircraft division, while Loral purchased LTV, Ford Aerospace, and Unisys. Then in 1994 Lockheed merged with Martin to become Lockheed Martin, and a year later Lockheed Martin purchased Loral to produce a $30 billion giant known as Lockheed Martin Loral, which now controls 40 percent of the Pentagon's procurement budget.

During this same period, Northrop outbid Martin for the Grumman aircraft company, and the new company in turn bought the defense division of Westinghouse. On a somewhat smaller scale, Hughes bought General Dynamics' missile division and Raytheon purchased E-Systems. Among the true defense giants, only McDonnell Douglas has not yet made a major purchase.

Spokesmen for the defense industry cite two reasons for this sudden rush of mergers. First, merger mania is sweeping U.S. industry generally. Second, with the end of the Cold War, defense spending has fallen so dramatically that excess capacity in the defense industry can be eliminated only through consolidation. As Norman Augustine of Lockheed Martin has observed, for the defense industry this is 1929.

Superficially these reasons seem quite plausible. Merger mania has certainly hit many areas of American industry, such as banking and communications. In 1992 Chemical Bank merged with Manufacturers Hanover, and in 1995 they combined with Chase Manhattan to form a single company. In the past year, Time, which had merged with Warner Communications in 1990, purchased Turner Broadcasting; Capital Cities/ABC merged with Pacific Telesis; and Bell Atlantic merged with NYNEX.

And defense spending has indeed fallen since the end of the Cold War. In current dollars, projected defense spending for fiscal year 1997 is about 40 percent below that of a decade ago, and procurement …

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Publication information: Article title: Merger Mania: Should the Pentagon Pay for Defense Industry Restructuring?. Contributors: Korb, Lawrence J. - Author. Magazine title: Brookings Review. Volume: 14. Issue: 3 Publication date: Summer 1996. Page number: 22+. © 1999 Brookings Institution. COPYRIGHT 1996 Gale Group.

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