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The Revolving Door from the Pentagon to the Private Sector
What do Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman have in common? Each of these corporations is one of the top five largest defense contractors in the nation. In 2011 alone, the Department of Defense committed to spending nearly $100 billion with just these five companies. To put that in perspective, that is about the same amount spent on the entire federal education budget for 2011.
But these defense contractors have one other interesting statistic in common: Between 2009 and 2011, at least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired took positions with these five companies. In fact, 70 percent of the 108 three-and-four star generals and admirals who retired during this time period took jobs with defense contractors or consultants. These startling statistics are just some of the insights revealed in a new report and accompanying short film released yesterday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Brave New Foundation. Entitled Strategic Maneuvers, the report reveals the extent of the Pentagon’s revolving door phenomenon, in which retired high-ranking generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry.
