Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defense contractor, a company that designs and builds fighter jets, missile systems, military helicopters, satellites, and cybersecurity platforms primarily for the U.S. government and allied nations. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, it employs approximately 121,000 people and operates more than 340 facilities, with active suppliers in every U.S. state and over 52 countries. The vast majority of its revenue comes from U.S. federal contracts, with government spending obligations directed to the company totaling more than $65 billion in fiscal year 2025 alone.
What Lockheed Martin Does
At its core, Lockheed Martin is an aerospace and defense technology company. It doesn’t sell products to everyday consumers. Instead, it builds complex military and space systems under contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, intelligence agencies, and foreign governments. Think of it as the company that builds much of the hardware the U.S. military relies on, from the jets that fly combat missions to the satellites that detect missile launches.
The company is organized into four main business segments, each focused on a different slice of defense and aerospace technology.
Aeronautics
This is the division most people associate with Lockheed Martin. It designs and manufactures military aircraft, including the F-35 Lightning II, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the C-130 transport plane. The aeronautics segment has been building military aircraft for more than a century and remains focused on advanced stealth technology and next-generation fighter development.
The F-35 is far and away the company’s signature program. It’s a stealth multirole fighter built in three variants for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. By March 2024, Lockheed Martin had produced more than 990 F-35s. Nineteen governments have agreed to purchase the jet, with seven allied nations serving as cost-sharing partners in its development. The Department of Defense estimates a total cost of at least $485.2 billion to develop and produce all 2,470 planned aircraft and engines, making it the most expensive weapons program in history.
Missiles and Fire Control
This segment builds the precision strike weapons and missile defense systems used by the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and dozens of allied militaries. Its products include the THAAD system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), which intercepts ballistic missiles in their final flight phase, and PAC-3 missiles, the interceptors used in the Patriot air defense system. The division also produces guided munitions, fire control systems, and both manned and unmanned combat platforms.
Lockheed Martin is currently developing Next-Generation Interceptors designed to counter evolving missile threats. The company also offers products and services for the global civil nuclear power industry, though military contracts dominate this segment’s work.
Rotary and Mission Systems
This division covers helicopters, radar, sensors, cybersecurity, and undersea systems. Its rotorcraft portfolio includes the Sikorsky line of helicopters, notably the Black Hawk and the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter for the Marine Corps. Beyond aircraft, the segment builds command and control systems, combat simulation and training platforms, and advanced cybersecurity tools used across the defense establishment.
The “mission systems” side of this division is less visible but equally significant. It develops the radar and sensor technology that lets military platforms detect threats, the software that coordinates complex operations, and the undersea systems used in submarine warfare.
Space
Lockheed Martin’s space division builds satellites and spacecraft for national security, communications, weather forecasting, and deep space exploration. It has built spacecraft for NASA missions and produces satellites that detect missile launches through thermal signatures, a critical component of the U.S. early warning defense network.
The company is also pushing into space-based missile defense. It has completed a prototyping hub designed to virtually test advanced concepts for intercepting missiles from orbit, and it aims to field an on-orbit demonstration of a space-based interceptor by 2028. The concepts under development range from satellites equipped with lasers to satellites that physically maneuver into the path of incoming missiles.
Who Pays for All of This
The U.S. federal government is Lockheed Martin’s dominant customer by a wide margin. In fiscal year 2025, federal spending obligations directed to the company exceeded $65 billion. International military sales to allied governments make up a meaningful but smaller share of revenue, often flowing through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales program rather than as direct commercial deals.
This heavy dependence on a single customer is a defining characteristic of the business. Lockheed Martin’s financial performance is closely tied to the U.S. defense budget and to congressional decisions about which weapons programs to fund, expand, or cut. When a program like the F-35 faces budget scrutiny or production delays, it directly affects the company’s bottom line.
Global Presence
While Lockheed Martin is an American company, its footprint extends well beyond U.S. borders. It maintains operations or partnerships in countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Israel, India, Saudi Arabia, and several European and Asia-Pacific nations. Its supplier network spans more than 13,000 active suppliers, with over 900 based outside the United States.
This international presence serves two purposes. It supports allied nations that buy Lockheed Martin systems and need local maintenance, training, and parts. And it positions the company to compete for defense contracts from governments that increasingly want to invest in their own military capabilities, often with the requirement that some manufacturing or technology transfer happens locally.