"Iraq boosts Lockheed, Halliburton", 27 October 2004

Lockheed Martin, the biggest US defence group, yesterday reported a 41% rise in profits as arms spending continues to rise around the world.

The company, a supplier of fighter jets to the US, said third-quarter earnings were $307m (£167m). It raised its sales and earnings forecasts for the full year and 2005.

Halliburton, the oil services company carrying out work in Iraq and Afghanistan for the US, posted far more modest gains from the war. It said yesterday that Iraq-related work raised $1.4bn in revenues in the third quarter but only $4m in profits. So far, military contracts have handed $8.8bn in revenues to Halliburton since the start of the Iraq war last year.

Lockheed said strong demand for information technology services and warplanes - the F-35 joint strike fighter, the F/A-22 jet and the C-5 cargo plane - led to the surge in profits. The company has also benefited from federal spending on technology, including systems allowing computers to share and compile data for uses such as monitoring national borders.

The US army is spending an increasing amount on technology. Lockheed's IT sales grew 33% to $991m. Group revenues rose 4% to $8.4bn during the quarter...