Defense industry is not key to the economy
Daniel Gouré, 10-4-2018, (PhD, Vice President of the Lexington Institute, a thinktank, and an analyst on national security and military issues) "Winning Future Wars: Modernization and a 21st Century Defense Industrial Base," Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/military-strength/topical-essays/winning-future-wars-modernization-and-21st-century-defense
The decline of the defense industrial base as a driver of the overall economy is reflected in the Fortune 500 listings. In 1961, 15 defense companies were among the top 100 companies listed. In 2017, only four aerospace and defense companies were ranked above 100. Of these, only two—Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics—were primarily defense companies. The other two—Boeing, the highest ranking of the four at 24, and United Technologies—are major providers of defense products but receive a large percentage of their total revenues from commercial sales.40