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Exhibit 345

Government Contracting: Assessment of the Study of Defense Contractor Profitability (GAO/NSIAD-87-50)

Exhibit 345 ยท GAO report

Government Contracting: Assessment of the Study of Defense Contractor Profitability (GAO/NSIAD-87-50)

GAO found that the use of conventional methodology results in the conclusion that during the entire period the profitability of defense business was substantially greater than commercial business.

GAO review of DoD's DFAIR profit study; concludes by conventional methodology defense profitability was substantially greater than commercial across the period examined since 1970 and takes no position on what profits should be.

Source
U.S. General Accounting Office
Date
23 December 1986
Quoted from
Executive Summary, Results in Brief, p. 2 (OCR text)
Grade
Primary record
Document
https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-87-50.pdf
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding DEF-1.8
Primary record DoD's April 2023 Contract Finance Study found that defense contractors outperformed commercial counterparts on 8 of 9 key financial metrics while profit margins were somewhat lower, and that cash paid to shareholders rose 73 percent in 2010-2019 compared with 2000-2009 while the share of spending on independent research and development declined.