The states with the highest Pentagon spending increases in fiscal 2020 were Texas, Arizona and Maryland and contracts for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 and Raytheon [RTX] missiles were significant contributors, according to DoD’s annual defense spending by state report issued last week.
“Texas, Arizona and Maryland had the largest increases in DoD spending from Fiscal Year 2019 to 2020,” per a report summary. “This was driven by large contracts to Lockheed Martin in Texas, Raytheon in Arizona, and Lockheed Martin in Maryland. These contracts were related to the production of the F-35, missiles, and ship building and repair.”
For example, Raytheon received U.S. Navy contracts of $641 million for maritime Tactical Tomahawks and $392 million for AIM-9X Sidewinders in March last year, while Lockheed Martin received $4.7 billion for 78 F-35s in the spring of last year and $2.3 billion for the program in December 2019.
Texas ranked first in defense spending by state in fiscal 2020 and recorded $83 billion in fiscal 2020–a significant increase from $54.8 billion in fiscal 2019 when Texas ranked third in defense spending behind California and Virginia.
In fiscal 2020, Arizona ranked seventh with $20.2 billion–up from 11th place and $15.1 billion in fiscal 2019, while Maryland ranked fourth with $30.4 billion–up from a fifth place ranking in fiscal 2019 with $26.1 billion.
Last year, “DoD contract obligations and payroll spending in the 50 states and the District of Columbia totaled $593.9 billion–, 2.8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP),” per DoD. “If the total spending were divided across every U.S. resident, it would amount to $1,803 per U.S. citizen.”
The 10 states with the highest level of defense spending in fiscal 2020 were Texas–$83 billion, Virginia–$64.3 billion, California–$61 billion, Maryland–$30.4 billion, Florida–$29.1 billion, Connecticut–$23.6 billion, Arizona–$20.2 billion, Massachusetts–$18.6 billion, Pennsylvania–$17.8 billion, and Georgia–$15.8 billion.
Defense spending in those 10 states totals $289.8 billion–about 61 percent of DoD’s $593.9 billion contract obligations and payroll spending in the states and the District of Columbia.