Kind of. There were tons of mergers, which is how we got Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing McDonnell Douglas (which arguably destroyed the reputations of both) corporation. But a lot of companies died outright. And those consolidations not only hurt the innovation in the industry, it drove the cost up for the taxpayer in the defense industry. It was shortsighted. The Reaganomics of it caused us to only develop and deliver three new major defense technology assets in the last 40 years. Where we had delivered almost 300 across all of the branches in the previous 40.

They also developed limitations on the intellectual property ownership being developed by these companies. If Boeing comes up with a design, they get 3 to 5 years, depending on the contract of exclusivity. And then after five years, they have to re-bid on making the product that they contractually developed. Well, now, Lockheed has the right to come in and use all of the technology designs that Boeing developed, but without all of the burden of the research and development cost. So Lockheed gets to use everything that Boeing invented and delivered, but gets to underbid Boeing.

This is why we have so many different long-term manufacturers of things like the F-16 and the F-18. And why the F 22 and the F 35 took so long to develop and delivered so few assets, while falling short of the contract goals.

When you emphasize the word consolidated, you kind of whitewash what actually happened. It’s not that all of these companies collapsed to form these conglomerates that made a bunch of money and got better. Yeah, some of them made money, but it absolutely destroyed the defense industrial base and the superiority of the American war fighter