The top 100 global defence companies have been announced by annual list compiler Defense News.
Lockheed Martin remained firmly on top, a position recently strengthened by its purchase of helicopter giant Sikorsky from United Technologies. It recorded revenues of $US40 billion which were down $US366 million from last year.
French giant Thales, which made the top ten last year has dropped to 12th place but this was mainly due to a change in accounting practices, a shift that has affected many European firms' standings.
Russian firms such as Almaz-Antey posted double digit gains on 2013 results, thanks to exports to non-western clients India and China. Russian exports to western countries have been frozen in the wake of the Ukraine crisis and the MH17 disaster.
Japanese conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy industries rose 20 places to 46th, followed by Ultra Electronics (up 18 to 68th) and PAE (up 11 to 74th). The biggest drops were by Patria (down 30 to 94th), Oshkosh (down 21 to 48th) and ManTech (down 21 to 64th).
Overall the industry has performed well, according to Steve Grundman, a former Pentagon industrial policy chief who is now a consultant and a member of the Atlantic Council.
"To the credit of the current cast of captains of this industry, it is astonishingly healthy financially. Here, five years into a significant downturn in its primary customer's spending, these are all essentially healthy companies," Grundman said.
But the market downturn is likely to remain for a few more years, with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson telling Defense News that she is not convinced that the market has hit the bottom. Congress has yet to work out a new budget deal, with the spending caps of sequestration - loosened for two years - once again clamping down on US defence spending in fiscal year 2016.
Despite this Hewson said: "There is clearly a recognition by the lawmakers that I speak to that we have so many global security challenges and needs to modernise our defence capabilities that we need to increase spending above the budget caps".