Defense Giants Score Poorly on Arms Development

Northrop Grumman Corp., maker of unmanned systems including the Global Hawk drone, and Raytheon Co., the world’s largest missile-maker, rank at the bottom of the pack in weapons development performance, according to a new report from the Defense Department.

The acquisition document, called the 2014 Performance of the Defense Acquisition System and released last week, compared the Pentagon’s top contractors in terms of their ability to develop and produce weapons systems on time and on budget.

The report analyzed contracts for major defense acquisition programs over more than a decade, from 2000 through 2013, and compared the performance of the biggest firms by the development and production phases of the acquisition cycle.

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