New Research: Military Contractors Received Over Half of Pentagon Spending Since 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Darcey Rakestraw, [email protected]
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, BROWN UNIVERSITY – The reconciliation bill enacted last week pushes annual U.S. military spending beyond the $1 trillion mark, which will likely trigger a more than half-trillion-dollar transfer of wealth from taxpayers to military contractors, according to a new analysis.
A new report by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft reveals that from 2020 to 2024, the last five-year period for which full statistics are available, private firms received $2.4 trillion in contracts from the Pentagon, approximately 54% of the department’s discretionary spending of $4.4 trillion over that period.
The report was covered exclusively in The Guardian.
During the five years from 2020 to 2024, the U.S. government invested over twice as much money in five weapons companies as in diplomacy and international assistance. Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion). By comparison, the total diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid budget, excluding military aid, was $356 billion.
The report was authored by William D. Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Stephen Semler, cofounder of the Security Policy Reform Institute (SPRI).
“High Pentagon budgets are often justified because the funds are ‘for the troops,’” said Hartung. “But as this paper shows, the majority of the department’s budget goes to corporations, money that has as much to do with special interest lobbying as it does with any rational defense planning. Much of this funding has been wasted on dysfunctional or overpriced weapons systems and extravagant compensation packages.”
“Taxpayers are expected to fund a $1 trillion Pentagon budget,” said Semler. “This paper illustrates what they’ll be paying for: a historic redistribution of wealth from the public to private industry.”
The report also found that annual U.S. military spending has grown significantly this century, as has the portion of the budget that goes to contractors: While 54% of the Pentagon’s average annual spending has gone to military contractors since 2020, during the 1990s, only 41% went to contractors.
Annual U.S. military spending, including funding for the Pentagon and military activities funded by other agencies, had risen from $531 billion in 2000 to $899 billion in 2025, in constant 2025 dollars. However, legislation approved in July 2025 adds $156 billion to this total, pushing U.S. military spending to $1.06 trillion. Taking these supplemental funds into account, the U.S. military budget has nearly doubled this century, increasing 99% since 2000.
The report also analyzes the tools of influence used by the arms industry — lobbying, millions in campaign donations, the revolving door, and others — that are expanding. As of 2024, there were 950 lobbyists hired by the arms industry — 220 more than in 2020 — helping to shape policy and increase military spending.
“These figures represent a continuing and massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to fund war and weapons manufacturing,” said Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War project. “This is not an arsenal of democracy — it’s an arsenal of profiteering. We should keep the enormous and growing power of the arms industry in mind as we assess the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S. and globally.”
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