Washington committed more contract money to UnitedHealth than to Boeing in 2025. It came to 6% of UnitedHealth’s revenue.

35 public companies, $330.7 billion

In fiscal 2025, 35 companies that file with the SEC had at least $1 billion of federal contracts committed to them. The largest were Lockheed Martin ($76.4 billion), General Dynamics ($36.6 billion), RTX ($34.4 billion), UnitedHealth ($25.4 billion) and Boeing ($23.3 billion). Between them the 35 took 41% of the $813.8 billion the government committed in contracts that year.

The figures are obligations: the money an agency legally commits when it signs a contract or adds to one. A company earns it as it does the work, which can take years, so the last column, contracts as a share of revenue, is a rough gauge of how much a company leans on Washington, not its exact share of sales. A company’s units are counted together when the unit carries the company’s name or the company’s own annual report names it as part of the business.

Sixty-five cents of every contract dollar

The Department of Defense committed $527 billion in contracts in fiscal 2025, 65% of everything the government contracted for. The next-largest buyer, Veterans Affairs, committed $78.3 billion; the Department of Energy, $48.5 billion.

The top three contractors are weapons makers, and the first is far ahead. The $76.4 billion committed to Lockheed Martin is more than twice General Dynamics’ $36.6 billion and RTX’s $34.4 billion. It is also more than Lockheed reported in revenue for the whole year. Its annual report explains part of the gap:

“In 2025, 72% of our $75.0 billion in sales were from the U.S. Government, either as a prime contractor or as a subcontractor (including 63% from the Department of War (DoW), also known as the Department of Defense under 10 U.S.C. 111(a)) and 28% were from international customers (including foreign military sales (FMS) contracted through the U.S. Government).” Lockheed Martin annual report, 2025

The Pentagon signs for the jets and missiles it buys on behalf of allies, so those contracts land in Washington’s books while Lockheed counts the sales as international. Add the multi-year deals whose money is committed now and earned later, and the government’s figure can outrun the company’s. What it cannot do is overstate how much of Lockheed’s business runs through one customer’s procurement office.

The second-biggest buyer pays for doctors and drugs

Five health care companies are on the list: UnitedHealth, McKesson, Cencora, Humana and Centene. The government committed $52.7 billion in contracts to them in fiscal 2025, more than to Boeing and Northrop Grumman together ($37.1 billion).

Veterans Affairs committed $25.2 billion to UnitedHealth and $11.5 billion to McKesson, the drug distributor. UnitedHealth lists the department among the public buyers of its Optum services:

“Optum Health sells its products primarily through its direct sales force, strategic collaborations and external producers in three key areas: employers, including large, mid-sized and small employers; payers including health plans, third-party administrators (TPAs), underwriter/stop-loss carriers and individual product intermediaries; and public entities, including the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Veterans Affairs, Defense, and other federal, state and local health care agencies.” UnitedHealth annual report, 2025

The Pentagon buys health care too. The $6.5 billion committed to Humana came from the Department of Defense, for the military’s health plan:

“Under our TRICARE contracts with the United States Department of Defense, or DoD, we provide administrative services to arrange health care services for active-duty and retired military personnel and their dependents.” Humana annual report, 2025

Cencora’s $7.4 billion came mostly from Defense as well. And the largest contractor of any kind that files nothing with the SEC buys care for veterans: TriWest Healthcare Alliance, at $13.4 billion, seventh among all contractors and ahead of McKesson.

Same customer, opposite positions

For seven companies on the list, the year’s contracts came to half their revenue or more: Lockheed Martin (102%), V2X (96%), Huntington Ingalls (HII) (83%), General Dynamics (70%), Booz Allen Hamilton (66%), SAIC (65%) and CACI (62%). For 14 others, they came to less than a tenth, among them UnitedHealth (6%) and McKesson (3%).

The shipbuilder says the dependence in one line:

“We depend on the U.S. Government for substantially all of our business.” HII annual report, 2025

General Dynamics, second on the list, puts a number on it:

“In 2025, 68% of our consolidated revenue was from the U.S. government, 15% was from U.S. commercial customers, 8% was from non-U.S. government customers and the remaining 9% was from non-U.S. commercial customers.” General Dynamics annual report, 2025

The consultants and service firms sit in the same group: Booz Allen Hamilton at 66%, V2X at 96%. Booz Allen even names a single agency that matters on its own:

“Our civil government customers include many of the civil agencies of the U.S. government, of which the Department of Veterans Affairs was the single largest customer in fiscal 2026, from which we derived 10% of our revenue.” Booz Allen Hamilton annual report, fiscal 2026

At the other end, McKesson’s report treats the government as one customer with unusual terms rather than the business itself:

“Our government contracts might not be renewed or might be terminated for convenience with little prior notice.” McKesson annual report, fiscal 2026

The same sentence would read very differently in Huntington Ingalls’ report. When 83% of a year’s revenue answers to one buyer, a budget delay in Congress is a cash-flow event, and the buyer’s priorities are the strategy. When it is 3%, it is a contract to win or lose like any other.

Laboratories, a rocket company and the private firms

52 other contractors had $1 billion or more in fiscal 2025 without filing with the SEC: private companies, universities, joint ventures and the operators of national laboratories. Together they took $125 billion.

The largest laboratories are run under contract to the Department of Energy. The operators of Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore took $14.5 billion between them. Honeywell runs Sandia as a contract operator, and the Kansas City National Security Campus too, whose operating company had $2.1 billion. Its own report keeps both at arm’s length:

“Sandia and KCNSC are U.S. Department of Energy facilities.” Honeywell annual report, 2025

“Honeywell manages these facilities as a contract operator and does not establish or control their human resource policies.” Honeywell annual report, 2025

That is why the $1.8 billion on Honeywell’s line in the list above leaves the laboratories out. SpaceX, privately held, had $3 billion committed to it, mostly by the Pentagon and NASA.