Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the world by revenue, formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as LMT. It runs four business areas: Aeronautics, which builds the F-35, F-22 and C-130; Missiles and Fire Control, which covers THAAD, PAC-3, HIMARS and JASSM; Rotary and Mission Systems, which includes Sikorsky helicopters and naval combat systems; and Space, which builds satellites, strategic missiles and human-spaceflight hardware. The US government is by far its largest customer, buying directly and through foreign military sales.

Business and Financial Position

For the second quarter of 2026, ended 28 June 2026, Lockheed Martin reported net sales of $20.1 billion, up 11 percent from $18.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025. Net earnings were $1.8 billion, or $7.94 per share. Cash from operations was $3.2 billion and free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was $2.9 billion.

The company booked $65 billion of new orders in the quarter, taking backlog to a record $230 billion. Lockheed Martin attributed most of the increase over the first six months of 2026 to an undefinitized contractual action awarded for the THAAD missile defence programme — an authorisation to begin work before final terms are agreed, which means the booked value can still change.

Why It Matters for Drones and Autonomy

Lockheed Martin is a comparatively late and cautious entrant to small uncrewed systems, and its autonomy exposure sits mostly at the high end: optionally-crewed rotorcraft work through Sikorsky, mission-autonomy software, and the counter-drone side of its missile-defence portfolio. Its scale is in programmes measured in decades, not in the fast product cycles that define the small-drone market.

That is the tension worth watching. A record backlog is a genuine strength — it makes revenue unusually predictable — but backlog of this kind is concentrated in a handful of very large government programmes, and it is a lagging measure of relevance rather than a leading one. The company’s position in counter-UAS and in cheap mass-produced autonomous systems is far less settled than its position in fighters and interceptors.