The latest Fortune 100 list contains only four companies categorized as "aerospace and defense" firms, down from 15 in the Eisenhower era. After reaching a peak in the early 1970s, the numbers of firms in A&D has steadily declined even during the Reagan administration's defense buildup in the 1980s. The trend in the economic power of defense firms also is noteworthy. In 1961, in constant dollars, the Fortune 100 produced less than $1 billion in economic activity as measured in annual revenue. However, the defense firms identified on the 1961 Fortune 100 accounted for nearly 30 percent of this total, which made them economic powerhouses. But from 1961 to 2015, while the revenues of the overall Fortune 100 have soared from less than $ 1 billion to nearly $8 billion, those firms in the defense industrial base have not kept pace. Defense firms have fallen from nearly 30 percent of the Fortune 100 revenue to less than 3 percent, with the pure defense firms now less than 1.5 percent. This says, among other things, that companies once having a significant defense segment, but viewing it as secondary business line, have largely sold or closed those units and exited the defense market.
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