Signal 01
13%
The White House said the May 2, 2025 skinny budget would increase defense spending by 13 percent.
White House proposed defense spending increase
The White HouseWAR MONEY
Public Budgets.
Private Order Books.
War Money tracks how public defense dollars turn into private revenue through budget documents, contractor filings, award pages, and lobbying disclosures.
Budget direction is linked on-page
Contractor backlog and award pages are visible
Page review date: March 31, 2026
Verified Public Signals
What The Public Record Already Shows
These numbers show the visible scale of the defense money pipeline and the firms positioned to keep winning future work.
Signal 02
$88.6B
RTX reported $88.603 billion in sales for the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2025.
RTX 2025 sales
RTXSignal 03
$268B
RTX said it ended 2025 with a total backlog of $268 billion.
RTX total backlog at year-end 2025
RTXSignal 04
$107B
RTX said $107 billion of its year-end 2025 backlog was defense backlog.
RTX defense backlog at year-end 2025
RTXSignal 05
$176B
Lockheed Martin said it ended 2024 with a backlog of $176 billion in its Jan. 28, 2025 full-year results release.
Lockheed Martin backlog at year-end 2024
Lockheed MartinSignal 06
$35.1B
USAspending lists a Department of Defense award to Lockheed Martin Corporation with a total award amount of about $35.1 billion and a start date of Nov. 17, 2017.
Largest listed Lockheed award in USAspending
USAspendingHow It Works
What This Page Is Following
The page follows the mechanisms underneath war-profiteering claims: budgets, contracts, backlog, lobbying, and awards.
File 01
Budgets Become Profit Through Contracts
The war-money story starts with budgets, but it does not end there. Public appropriations only become private revenue after they pass through procurement systems, contractor books, and long future backlogs.
File 02
Separate Defense Rhetoric From Contractor Gain
A big defense budget is the starting point, not the finding. The record question is which firms keep winning, what their order books look like, and which policy fights keep feeding those order books.
File 03
Future Revenue Is Part Of The Story
Backlog is political information. If a company is already sitting on tens or hundreds of billions in future work, that tells the public where tomorrow's revenue is likely to land before the next budget even passes.
File 04
The Network Layer Matters Too
War Money also belongs next to Corporate Capture. The same elite networks that shape policy books, donor systems, and access often appear again around giant contractors, infrastructure deals, and government buildouts.
Current Lines
Public Record Threads
Active file
The Money Direction Is Still Up
The White House's current defense direction is still upward. Each new topline push expands the pipeline feeding contract awards, backlog, and lobbying.
Active file
Public Filings Already Show The Pipeline
RTX and Lockheed already disclose backlog numbers large enough to function like parallel budget maps. The future revenue is not hidden. It is sitting in public filings right now.
Active file
Award Pages Make The Story Concrete
USAspending is where giant abstractions turn into named awards. Once a reader can click from a political story to a contract page, the whole system becomes much harder to wave away.
Reporting Queue
What Gets Traced Next
The page works best when a reader can move from a budget line to a company filing to an award record without losing the thread. That is the standard for every new case file here.
Match defense budget shifts to named award pages, contractor results, and weapons programs before implying profiteering.
Tie lobbying filings and trade-group campaigns to specific budget fights, foreign conflicts, or procurement pushes whenever the public record allows it.
Trace how future backlog growth lines up with present political positioning and completed awards.
Build case files around one contractor, one program, and one revenue stream at a time so the reader can follow the money without military jargon.
Stories
Published Stories From This Record
War Money
Defense Backlogs Keep Growing
The money story around war does not end with appropriations. It runs through company sales, backlogs, contracts, and lobbying records.
Corporate Capture
The Bohemian Grove Archive Matters More Than The Owl
The club says the Grove is a refuge from decision-making. The Reagan Library still contains a Social Security memo tied directly to a Bohemian Grove conversation.
Political Money
California's Wealth-Tax Fight Drew Billionaire Money Before The Vote
A proposed 5 percent net-worth tax, an 870,000-signature ballot threshold, and a $20 million opposition check put California's billionaire-tax fight into campaign-finance territory before voters saw a ballot.
Source Stack
Budgets, Filings, And Award Records In Use
White House Skinny Budget Release
Official administration release used for current defense-spending direction and topline framing.
FY 2026 DOD Technical Supplement
Current official budget supplement for Department of Defense account detail.
RTX 2025 Results
Current company release for sales, segment totals, and backlog including defense backlog.
Lockheed Martin 2024 Results
Latest official full-year Lockheed release currently used for sales and backlog context.
USAspending Lockheed Award Page
A direct award page showing the scale of one long-running Lockheed Martin Department of Defense contract in the federal spending system.
USAspending
Federal award records used to connect defense budgets to named contracts and recipients.
Senate Lobbying Disclosure Filings
Official federal lobbying search used to connect defense contractors and trade groups to lobbying activity.
Publication 01
Start With The Official Budget
This page does not treat every military appropriation as proof of abuse. It follows the official budget, the company filing, and the award record before making a stronger claim.
Publication 02
Size Is Not Proof
Backlog and revenue scale matter, but size alone is not misconduct. The public record has to show the connection to policy, lobbying, or award flow.
Publication 03
Name The Filing Or Award
If a company or weapons program is named here, the official filing or award page should be linked from the page itself.
Cross-System Link
Why This Investigation Matters
War Money works alongside Political Money and Corporate Capture because the same system often runs from donor influence to policy language to giant contractor revenue.
Latest Coverage
Linked reporting for War Money
Stories stay in the main feed and land back on the case page they belong to. This desk currently has 11 linked stories.
Publishing Logic
The Desk Holds The File
The story feed carries the running report. The case page keeps the source trail, framing, and latest linked coverage in one place.
Open the full story feed.
Last standards review: March 31, 2026
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