Lockheed tops BGOV200

Bloomberg Government this morning released its list of the top 200 contractors, topped this year by Lockheed Martin with $36.6 billion in fiscal year 2015 obligations.

The top five is unchanged from the previous year; following Lockheed are Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. (The ranking only includes prime contracts and does not include classified contract actions.)

However, merger and acquisition activity provided boosts for some companies. Harris, for example, jumped from 29th on the list to 14th, following its acquisition of Exelis. Orbital ATK, the combination created by merging Orbital Sciences with ATK's aerospace and defense units, was 24th, up from 35th the prior year.

Bloomberg cautioned that the list doesn't include transactions concluded after the end of FY-15; Lockheed's ranking, for example, does not take into account its purchase of Sikorsky. Also not included is Lockheed's pending divestiture of its information systems and global services unit.

The report notes that spending in FY-15 on medical supplies increased, bolstering companies like McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, while fuel spending declined. Additionally, the study states total contract spending in FY-15 was down 1.5 percent from the prior year, marking "probably the last year-over-year contract [spending] decline we will see for a while."

Read the full report.