Defense revenues of the top 100 defense companies in the world climbed for a fifth consecutive year, a sign that fiscal 2020 was good for the industry despite the crippling coronavirus. The pandemic was tough on the commercial side of the global aerospace industry, as it sapped demand for air travel, but the list bears out an expectation that the defense industry would hold steady. Defense revenues recorded in this year's Defense News Top 100 (see pg. 10) totaled $551 billion, up about 5 percent from $524 billion for fiscal 2019, recorded in last year's list. "The defense industry, really because it was a critical industry, figured out how to keep people working - limiting the amount of people on the production lines, social distancing, the whole bit. They were able to adjust, keep the production lines going and also prove that lots of engineering and research and development can be done remotely," said Bill Greenwalt, a former Pentagon industrial policy official who is now with the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
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