Assessment · Foreign demand

Lockheed Martin and RTX dominate U.S. foreign arms-sale proposals

Foreign customers’ share of defense sales moved less than four percentage points in 2021–2025 at the five U.S.-listed companies named on the most proposed arms-sale value.

October 8, 2026

Allies and partners funded $75.9 billion of Foreign Military Sales with their own money in fiscal 2025, against $44.8 billion in fiscal 2020. The peak was $96.9 billion in fiscal 2024.^1–3

We matched the arms sale notifications that the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and the State Department posted from January 2022 through Oct. 2, 2026, to the principal contractors each one names. That is 483 possible sales worth $564 billion. Lockheed Martin or RTX is named on 69% of that value, counting each notice in full for every company it names. At the five U.S.-listed companies named on the most value, the share of defense sales going to customers outside the U.S. moved less than four points from 2021 to 2025.⁴

Allies' own FMS purchases rose 69% from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025

Fiscal 2021 was the low point of the six years, at $28.7 billion. The totals leave out cases paid for with U.S. Foreign Military Financing and building-partner-capacity money, which added $28.5 billion in fiscal 2025.^{2, 5}

James Hursch, then DSCA's director, gave possible reasons for the fiscal 2022 increase in a DSCA article dated Jan. 26, 2023. They included the waning effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and concerns about China's rising influence in the Pacific. "Perhaps most importantly, [we attribute this to] the understanding among our partners and allies that we're back in an age of great power competition," he said. At the 2024 Sea-Air-Space exposition he pointed to "a huge increase in demand from our European allies and partners over the last few years since the ... invasion by the Russians in Ukraine".^6–8

Lockheed Martin or RTX is named on 69% of the value of arms sales notified since 2022

A notification is a proposed sale, sent to Congress before any sales agreement is signed. DSCA's releases say "Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded". The highest full year was 2024, at $145 billion.^{4, 9}

The largest notification was for F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft for Saudi Arabia, at $24.3 billion. Next came F-16 Aircraft Acquisition and Modernization for Türkiye ($23.0 billion) and F-15IA and F-15I+ Aircraft for Israel ($18.8 billion). Without those three, Lockheed Martin or RTX is named on 69% of notified value. Releases that name no contractor carry 6%.^{4, 10–12}

Foreign customers' share of sales moved under four points at the five named most

The five are Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. Their combined sales to customers outside the U.S. rose 14% from 2021 to 2025, to $46.8 billion. Lockheed Martin's 2021 figure includes $885 million from AWE, the U.K. nuclear deterrent program it operated until June 30, 2021. Without AWE, the five's foreign sales rose 16%, and Lockheed Martin's foreign share went from 26.5% to 28.4%.^13–19

RTX's foreign share rose the most, from 27.2% to 30.8%. Boeing's fell the most, from 25.1% to 22.6%.^{14–15, 20–21}

Measured from 2019, before the fiscal 2021 low, the change is under three points at Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. Lockheed Martin's 2019 figure also includes AWE, and RTX's 2019 figures predate the 2020 merger that formed it.^22–25

Open FMS cases and General Dynamics' backlog grew

The State Department reports three-year rolling averages, in addition to annual figures, given "the multi-year implementation timeframes for many arms transfers and defense trade cases". It reported an open case value of over $934 billion in fiscal 2025, against over $845 billion a year earlier.^{2–3, 26}

General Dynamics' Combat Systems backlog rose 60% in 2025, to $27.2 billion. The company attributes the rise in the segment's backlog and estimated potential contract value mainly to $9.2 billion of awards for wheeled and tracked vehicles for international customers. It also lists munitions and next-generation Abrams tank awards. Its 10-K shows international military vehicles as 56% of the segment's total estimated contract value.^27–28

RTX's Raytheon segment ended 2025 with $75 billion of backlog, against $52 billion two years earlier. RTX and Lockheed Martin don't split backlog by customer in their 10-Ks.^29–30

Boeing does, and its foreign share fell. Customers outside the U.S. held 29% of its defense unit's backlog at the end of 2019 and 33% at the end of 2021, the highest year. At the end of 2025 they held 26%. On those shares, the U.S. part grew about 57% from 2021 and the foreign part about 12%.^31–33

Backlogs show the orders still to reach sales

The FMS case book and General Dynamics' Combat Systems backlog show foreign orders that have not yet reached sales; Boeing's defense backlog shows U.S. orders growing faster. Lockheed Martin, named on the most value, expects about 37% of its backlog to become sales in the next 12 months. The next readings are the five companies' 2026 annual reports, due early in 2027, and the State Department's fiscal 2026 arms transfer figures. Its fiscal 2025 fact sheet is dated March 16, 2026.^{26, 34}

How we built this

Notifications: the arms sale notifications DSCA posted, in its Major Arms Sales library and on its web pages, from Jan. 1, 2022, until it stopped posting in February 2026, and those the State Department has posted since (413 and 70). Where an old DSCA address no longer resolves, we read the Internet Archive's copy of the DSCA page. Each notification counts once, by transmittal number, at the value in its first paragraph. A company is named when a release names it, or a business it owns today, as a principal or prime contractor. Counting each notice in full for every company it names, Lockheed Martin or RTX is on 69% of notified value; counting only the first contractor named, 58%; splitting each notice equally among the companies named, 60%; counting only notices that name no one else, 51%. By number of notices it is 54%. Our yearly totals are within 0.9% of the Forum on the Arms Trade's tracker, which covers the same Foreign Military Sales notifications, and never above it. The company set is the five U.S.-listed companies named on the most notified value. Foreign shares come from each company's own 10-K table of sales by customer; the chart notes each basis. Lockheed Martin's 2019 and 2021 figures include AWE.³⁵