When it comes to protecting our country and its interests, few industries are as critical as Aerospace & Defense. From fighter jets to satellites, these companies play a vital role in ensuring our safety and security.
What is Aerospace & Defense?
Aerospace & Defense is a broad term that encompasses a variety of industries involved in the design, development, and production of aerospace and defense systems. This includes everything from commercial aircraft to military drones, and from ballistic missiles to satellite communication systems.
The Importance of Aerospace & Defense
The Aerospace & Defense industry is not only vital to national security but also to the economy. According to the Aerospace Industries Association, the industry generates over $374 billion in annual revenue and employs over 2.5 million people across the United States.
One of the key reasons for the industry’s importance is its role in national security. Aerospace & Defense companies provide the technology and equipment necessary to defend our country against a variety of threats, from terrorist attacks to foreign aggression. In addition, these companies play a critical role in intelligence gathering and surveillance, helping to keep us safe by monitoring potential threats from the skies.
Major Players in Aerospace & Defense
There are many companies involved in the Aerospace & Defense industry, ranging from small startups to large multinational corporations. Some of the biggest players include:
- Boeing: One of the largest aerospace companies in the world, Boeing is involved in everything from commercial aircraft to defense systems.
- Lockheed Martin: A leading defense contractor, Lockheed Martin produces a wide range of military aircraft, missiles, and other defense systems.
- Raytheon Technologies: This company produces a variety of defense technologies, including missiles, radar systems, and cybersecurity solutions.
- Northrop Grumman: Specializing in aerospace and defense technology, Northrop Grumman produces everything from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to missile defense systems.
The Future of Aerospace & Defense
As technology continues to advance, the Aerospace & Defense industry is likely to evolve and grow. With the rise of unmanned systems, for example, we may see an increase in the use of drones and other autonomous vehicles for military purposes. In addition, the industry is likely to continue to play a critical role in space exploration and the development of commercial spaceflight.
List of Aerospace & Defense Companies in the USA
| S. No. | Name | Founders | Founded Year |
| 1 | Boeing | William Boeing | 1916 |
| 2 | Lockheed Martin | Alcoa, Martin Marietta | 1995 |
| 3 | Raytheon Technologies Corporation | The Raytheon Company, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) | 2020 |
| 4 | General Dynamics | Electric Boat Company, Canadair | 1952 |
| 5 | Northrop Grumman | Northrop Corporation, Grumman Aircraft Engineering | 1994 |
| 6 | United Technologies Corporation (UTC) | United Aircraft Corporation, Hamilton Standard | 1934 |
| 7 | Honeywell International | Mark C. Honeywell | 1906 |
| 8 | L3Harris Technologies | Harris Corporation, L3 Technologies | 2019 |
| 9 | Textron Inc. | Royal Little | 1923 |
| 10 | General Electric | Thomas Edison | 1892 |
| 11 | BAE Systems | Marconi Electronic Systems, British Aerospace | 1999 |
| 12 | Pratt & Whitney | Frederick Rentschler | 1925 |
| 13 | Boeing Defense, Space & Security | Boeing | 2002 |
| 14 | Rockwell Collins, Inc. (now Collins Aerospace) | Arthur Collins | 1933 |
| 15 | Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (now a unit of Lockheed Martin) | Igor Sikorsky | 1925 |
| 16 | The Boeing Company | William Boeing | 1916 |
| 17 | Northrop Corporation | Jack Northrop | 1939 |
| 18 | Raytheon Company | Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush | 1922 |
| 19 | General Electric Company | Thomas Edison | 1892 |
| 20 | Grumman Corporation (now Northrop Grumman) | Leroy Grumman, Jake Swirbul | 1930 |
| 21 | United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now UTC) | William E. Boeing, Frederick B. Rentschler, Philip G. Johnson | 1929 |
| 22 | Rockwell International | Willard Rockwell | 1919 |
| 23 | McDonnell Douglas Corporation (now Boeing) | James S. McDonnell | 1967 |
| 24 | General Dynamics Corporation | John Jay Hopkins | 1952 |
| 25 | North American Aviation Corporation (now Boeing) | James H. “Dutch” Kindelberger | 1928 |
| 26 | Hamilton Standard (now part of Collins Aerospace) | Sanford Alexander Moss, Hamilton Clark | 1918 |
| 27 | Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (now a unit of Lockheed Martin) | Igor Sikorsky | 1925 |
| 28 | Garrett AiResearch (now part of Honeywell) | John Clifford “Cliff” Garrett | 1936 |
| 28 | Garrett AiResearch (now part of Honeywell) | John Clifford “Cliff” Garrett | 1936 |
| 29 | Hughes Aircraft Company (now Raytheon Technologies) | Howard Hughes | 1932 |
| 30 | Morton Thiokol (now Northrop Grumman) | Charles H. Thiokol | 1928 |
| 31 | Rockwell Automation | Lynde Bradley, Dr. Stanton Allen | 1903 |
| 32 | Alliant Techsystems (now part of Northrop Grumman) | Honeywell | 1990 |
| 33 | Martin Marietta (merged with Lockheed Corporation) | Glenn L. Martin, J. C. “Court”landt Gross | 1961 |
| 34 | Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Northrop Grumman) | David W. Thompson | 1982 |
| 35 | Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) | Elon Musk | 2002 |
| 36 | Harris Corporation (now L3Harris Technologies) | Paul R. Harris | 1895 |
| 37 | Bell Aircraft Corporation (now Bell Helicopter) | Lawrence Bell | 1935 |
| 38 | Cessna Aircraft Company (now part of Textron Aviation) | Clyde Cessna | 1927 |
| 39 | Moog Inc. | William C. Moog Jr. | 1951 |
| 40 | Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (now General Dynamics) | Allen E. Paulson | 1958 |
| 41 | Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings | William Rockefeller, George Jay Gould I | 1942 |
| 42 | Teledyne Technologies Incorporated | Henry Singleton, George Kozmetsky | 1960 |
| 43 | Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. | Lawrence Bell | 1935 |
| 44 | Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (now part of Lockheed Martin) | Igor Sikorsky | 1925 |
| 45 | Westinghouse Electric Corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman) | George Westinghouse Jr. | 1886 |
| 46 | SpaceX | Elon Musk | 2002 |
| 47 | Cubic Corporation | Walter J. Zable | 1951 |
| 48 | Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited | James Martin, Captain Valentine Baker | 1929 |
| 49 | AeroVironment Inc. | Paul MacCready | 1971 |
| 50 | The Aerospace Corporation | James R. Schlesinger | 1960 |
| 51 | The Aerospace Corporation | James R. Schlesinger | 1960 |
| 52 | Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems | Orbital Sciences Corporation | 2018 |
| 53 | Sierra Nevada Corporation | Fatih Ozmen, Eren Ozmen | 1963 |
| 54 | Sikorsky Innovations | Igor Sikorsky | 1925 |
| 55 | The Spaceship Company | Burt Rutan, Richard Branson | 2005 |
| 56 | Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. | Edmund Burke Ball | 1956 |
| 57 | CAE Inc. | Kenneth Patrick Rowe | 1947 |
| 58 | Curtiss-Wright Corporation | Glenn Curtiss, Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright | 1929 |
| 59 | Cytec Industries Inc. (now Solvay SA) | American Cyanamid Corporation | 1993 |
| 60 | Esterline Technologies Corporation | Paul Esterline | 1967 |
| 61 | FMC Technologies Inc. (now TechnipFMC plc) | John Bean | 2000 |
| 62 | GKN Aerospace | GKN | 1759 |
| 63 | Gencorp Inc. (now Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings) | Geneen & Co. | 1915 |
| 64 | General Atomics | Neal Blue | 1955 |
| 65 | Goodrich Corporation (now Collins Aerospace) | Benjamin Franklin Goodrich | 1870 |
| 66 | Héroux-Devtek Inc. | André Héroux, Réal Bélanger | 1942 |
| 67 | IAI North America (formerly Bedek Aviation Group) | Israel Aerospace Industries | 1953 |
| 68 | ITT Corporation (now ITT Inc.) | Sosthenes Behn | 1920 |
| 69 | Kratos Defense and Security Solutions | Eric DeMarco | 1994 |
| 70 | L3 Technologies (now L3Harris Technologies) | Frank Lanza | 1997 |
| 71 | Lockheed Martin Aeronautics | Glenn L. Martin Company | 1995 |
| 72 | LORD Corporation | Hugh Lord | 1924 |
| 73 | Meggitt PLC | Edward Ernest Meggitt | 1850 |
| 74 | Moog Inc. (now Moog Aircraft Group) | William C. Moog Jr. | 1951 |
| 75 | Oshkosh Corporation | William Besserdich | 1917 |
| 76 | Parker Hannifin Corporation | Arthur L. Parker | 1917 |
| 77 | Pratt & Whitney | Frederick Rentschler | 1925 |
| 78 | Raytheon Intelligence & Space | Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush | 1922 |
| 79 | Scaled Composites | Burt Rutan | 1982 |
| 80 | Smiths Group | Samuel Smith | 1851 |
| 81 | StandardAero (now part of Global Aerospace & Defense) | Bill Boisture | 1911 |
| 82 | Textron Aviation | Royal Little | 1923 |
| 83 | Triumph Group | Richard C. Ill | 1993 |
| 84 | United Technologies Corporation (now Raytheon Technologies) | Frederick Rentschler | 1934 |
| 85 | UTC Aerospace Systems (now Collins Aerospace) | United Technologies Corporation | 2012 |
| 86 | VSE Corporation | Art Lafferty, Don Ervine | 1959 |
| 87 | XCOR Aerospace | Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, Aleta Jackson, Doug Jones | 1999 |
| 88 | Zodiac Aerospace (now Safran Seats) | Maurice Mallet | 1896 |
| 89 | AeroVironment Inc. | Paul MacCready | 1971 |
| 90 | Applied Research Associates Inc. | William H. Austin | 1979 |
| 91 | Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation | John Langford | 1989 |
| 92 | Blue Origin LLC | Jeff Bezos | 2000 |
| 93 | CACI International Inc. | Herb Karr, Harry Markowitz, Jack London, Sid Finsilver | 1962 |
| 94 | Celera Corporation (now Quest Diagnostics) | J. Craig Venter | 1998 |
| 95 | Cubic Corporation | Walter J. Zable | 1951 |
| 96 | Dynetics Inc. | Dr. Tom Baumbach | 1974 |
| 97 | EADS North America (now Airbus Americas) | European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company | 2002 |
| 98 | Elbit Systems of America LLC | Elbit Systems | 1996 |
| 99 | Embraer Executive Jets | Ozires Silva | 1969 |
| 100 | General Dynamics Electric Boat | John P. Holland | 1899 |
| 101 | General Dynamics Information Technology | Lester Crown | 1899 |
| 102 | General Dynamics Mission Systems | Lester Crown | 1899 |
| 103 | General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems | Lester Crown | 1899 |
| 104 | Hawker Beechcraft Corporation | Walter Beech, Olive Ann Beech | 1932 |
| 105 | Honeywell Aerospace | Mark C. Honeywell | 1906 |
| 106 | Insitu Inc. (now part of Boeing) | Steve Sliwa, Tad McGeer, Ryan Hartman | 1994 |
| 107 | Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) North America | Israel Aerospace Industries | 1953 |
| 108 | Kaman Corporation | Charles H. Kaman | 1945 |
| 109 | Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems | Eric DeMarco | 1994 |
| 110 | LMI Aerospace Inc. | Clifford Stebe Jr. | 1948 |
| 111 | ManTech International Corporation | George J. Pedersen | 1968 |
| 112 | Orbital Sciences Corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman) | David W. Thompson | 1982 |
| 113 | OSI Systems Inc. | Deepak Chopra | 1987 |
| 114 | Pacific Aerospace Consulting Inc. | James McClellan | 1993 |
| 115 | Parker Hannifin Corporation | Arthur L. Parker | 1917 |
| 116 | Peraton | Hughes Aircraft Company, Raytheon Company | 2017 |
| 117 | Piper Aircraft Inc. | William T. Piper | 1927 |
| 118 | Pratt & Whitney | Frederick Rentschler | 1925 |
| 119 | Raytheon Company | Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush, Charles G. Smith | 1922 |
| 120 | Rockwell Collins Inc. | Arthur Collins | 1933 |
| 121 | Rolls-Royce North America Inc. | Henry Royce, Charles Rolls | 1906 |
| 122 | RUAG North America | RUAG | 1998 |
| 123 | Sierra Nevada Corporation | Fatih Ozmen, Eren Ozmen | 1963 |
| 124 | SNC-Lavalin PAE Inc. | SNC-Lavalin | 1911 |
| 125 | Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) | Elon Musk | 2002 |
| 126 | Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. | Boeing | 2005 |
| 127 | Textron Aviation Inc. | Beechcraft, Cessna, Hawker | 1923 |
| 128 | Textron Systems Corporation | Textron | 1984 |
| 129 | Thales USA Inc. | Thales | 2002 |
| 130 | The Aerospace Corporation | James H. Arnold | 1960 |
| 131 | The Spaceship Company | Richard Branson | 2004 |
| 132 | TransDigm Group Incorporated | W. Nicholas Howley | 1993 |
| 133 | Trijicon Inc. | Glyn Bindon, John Bindon | 1981 |
| 134 | T-X program (Boeing and Saab AB) | Boeing, Saab | 2013 |
| 135 | Ultra Electronics Holdings plc | Rakesh Sharma | 1920 |
| 136 | United Launch Alliance | Lockheed Martin, Boeing | 2006 |
| 137 | United States Aircraft Corporation | William Stout | 1926 |
| 138 | United Technologies Corporation (now Raytheon Technologies) | Frederick Rentschler | 1934 |
| 139 | UTC Aerospace Systems (now Collins Aerospace) | United Technologies Corporation | 2012 |
| 140 | ViaSat Inc. | Mark Dankberg | 1986 |
| 141 | Virgin Galactic | Richard Branson | 2004 |
| 142 | Virgin Orbit | Richard Branson | 2017 |
| 143 | Woodward Inc. | Amos Woodward | 1870 |
| 144 | Xpansiv | Joe Madden | 2016 |
| 145 | XPO Logistics Inc. | Michael Welch | 1989 |
| 146 | Xplore Inc. | Lisa Rich, Jeff Rich | 2017 |
| 147 | Yulista Holding, LLC | Calista Corporation | 2007 |
| 148 | Zipline International Inc. | Keller Rinaudo | 2014 |
| 149 | AAR Corp. | David P. Storch | 1951 |
| 150 | Abaco Systems Inc. | Carlo Zaffanella | 2015 |
| 151 | Acorn Growth Companies | Jeff Davis | 2005 |
| 152 | Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. | GenCorp | 1942 |
| 153 | AerSale Corporation | Nicolas Finazzo | 2008 |
| 154 | Aitech Defense Systems Inc. | Moshe Tal | 1983 |
| 155 | Air Lease Corporation | Steven Udvar-Házy, John L. Plueger | 2010 |
| 156 | Airbus Americas Inc. | Airbus | 2002 |
| 157 | Airbus Defense and Space Inc. | Airbus | 2014 |
| 158 | Airbus Helicopters Inc. | Airbus | 1969 |
| 159 | AKKA North America Inc. | AKKA Technologies | 1984 |
| 160 | Alion Science and Technology Corporation | Batelle Memorial Institute | 2002 |
| 161 | Allied Aviation Services Inc. | William F. Gibbs | 1954 |
| 162 | Alliant Techsystems Inc. (now part of Northrop Grumman) | Honeywell, AlliedSignal | 1990 |
| 163 | American Defense Systems Inc. | Anthony Piscitelli | 2002 |
| 164 | American Innovations Inc. | Michael Fraizer | 1986 |
| 165 | Anadarko Aerospace & Defense | Anadarko Industries | 1988 |
| 166 | Analogic Corporation | Bernard Gordon | 1967 |
| 167 | Anduril Industries Inc. | Palmer Luckey | 2017 |
| 168 | Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation | Jerry Shaw | 2004 |
| 169 | Applied Composites Engineering | John O’Connell | 1985 |
| 170 | Applied Research Associates Inc. | William Thompson | 1979 |
| 171 | ARC Aerospace Industries Inc. | Mark Harris | 2011 |
| 172 | Armag Corporation | Steve Dubin | 1996 |
| 173 | Arnold Defense | James H. Arnold | 1961 |
| 174 | Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) | Arnold Air Force Base | 1951 |
| 175 | ASRC Federal Holding Company | Arctic Slope Regional Corporation | 2003 |
| 176 | Astro Aerospace Corporation | John A. Powell | 1985 |
| 177 | Astronics Corporation | James Kramer | 1968 |
| 178 | ATAC | Jeffrey G. Parker | 1996 |
| 179 | Atlantic Diving Supply | ADS, Inc. | 1997 |
| 180 | ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. | Klaus Woerner | 1978 |
| 181 | Austal USA | Austal | 1998 |
| 182 | Aviation Technical Services | Matt Yerbic | 1978 |
| 183 | Axon Enterprise Inc. | Rick Smith | 1993 |
| 184 | BAE Systems | British Aerospace, Marconi Electronic Systems | 1999 |
| 185 | Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. | Ball Corporation | 1956 |
| 186 | Bayview Composites | Carl Kustell | 1989 |
| 187 | BEI Precision Systems & Space Company Inc. | Collins Aerospace | 1952 |
| 188 | Bell Flight | Bell Aircraft Corporation | 1935 |
| 189 | Black Diamond Advanced Technology | Bill Bowers, Steve Block | 2003 |
| 190 | Blackhawk Aerospace | Jim Allmon | 1999 |
| 191 | Blue Origin | Jeff Bezos | 2000 |
| 192 | BlueHalo | Skyline Software Systems, Ridgeback Technologies | 2020 |
| 193 | Boeing | William E. Boeing | 1916 |
| 194 | Bombardier Inc. | Joseph-Armand Bombardier | 1942 |
| 195 | Boom Supersonic | Blake Scholl | 2014 |
| 196 | Borsight | Randy Johnson | 2012 |
| 197 | Bridgewater Interiors LLC | Epsilon Technologies | 1998 |
| 198 | Bristol Composites Institute | University of Bristol | 2012 |
| 199 | Calspan Corporation | Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory | 1943 |
| 200 | Carleton Life Support Systems Inc. | Carleton Technologies Inc. | 1979 |
Conclusion
Aerospace & Defense is a critical industry that plays a vital role in ensuring our national security and driving economic growth. With a range of major players and an eye toward the future, it is poised to continue to be a key player in the world of technology and innovation for years to come.
