U.S. defense contractors did well in Middle East last year

WASHINGTON — 2000 was a very good year for defense sales to the Middle East by U.S. arms contractors.

Leading U.S. contractors scored major deals over the last year in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf which led to increased revenues. These included the sales of such systems as the F-16, Apache helicopter, M1A2 tanks and the Patriot air defense systems.

Lockheed Martin was the top beneficiary of Gulf orders with its $6.8 billion sale of 80 F-16s to the United Arab Emirates. Lockheed Martin headed the U.S. Defense Department's annual list of the top 100 U.S. defense contractor during 2000.

The company also obtained $15.1 billion in U.S. defense contracts last year, up from $12.7 billion in 1999.

On Thursday however, Lockheed Martin reported a 70 percent drop in fourth quarter net earnings — to $89 million as opposed to $293 million during the same period in 1999. But sales rose to $7.6 billion from $7 billion during the fourth quarter in 1999.

In second place on the Pentagon list came Boeing, which has closed deals for the sale of Apache helicopters and F-15s to such countries as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Boeing, producer of the F-15 fighter, recorded $12 billion in contracts in 2000, slightly more than the $11.6 billion recorded during the previous year.

In third place was Raytheon Corp. with $6.3 billion in U.S. contracts. The rest of the top 10 were General Dynamics, with $4.1 billion; Northrop Grumman with $3.1 billion; Litton Industries with $2.7 billion; United Technologies with $2.1 billion; TRW with $2 billion; General Electric with $1.6 billion; and Science Applications International $1.5 billion.