The Defense Industry is responsible for the research, development, and production of the military materials, equipment, and facilities required to uphold the mission of protecting the security of the United States.

Defense contractors, private military contractors, and the arms industry encompass the Defense Industry. Defense contractors are businesses or individuals that provide products or services to the Department of Defense, but do not offer direct support to military operations. In contrast, private military contractors are private companies (sometimes with professional soldiers as hired employees) that provide logistics and manpower for a military force. As its name suggests, the arms industry provides guns, ammunition, missiles, and aircrafts (to name a few) to the Defense Department.

Based on Washington Technology's 2010 Top 100 Government Contractors list, the Defense Industry invests a majority of its capital on information technology products and services, system integration, telecommunications, professional services and engineering services, aeronautics, electric systems, global services, space systems, aerospace systems, ship loading and commercial airplanes. The top three private companies with the highest defense contract revenue for the 2009 fiscal year are as follows: Lockheed Martin, Corp., Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corporation. The collective defense contract revenue for these three companies was $24,417,000,000 for the 2009 fiscal year.

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