Quote Originally Posted by SKkin
we went from having quite a few military contractors who battled each other in the typical American competitive spirit for contracts with the Pentagon down to about six really big ones.
I think there have only ever been between 5-10 really large prime contractors, certainly in Australia (the same players as in the US).

Quote Originally Posted by SKkin
Lockheed Martin'll be the prime, and Boeing and Raytheon and General Dynamics will be the subs, and so forth.
Yes, this is a common arrangement. A prime contractor will often engage one or more other subcontractors to build systems with which they may have more expertise or experience. It is not 'collusion'. If they were colluding to keep their prices high and uncompetitive that would be another thing but they are not doing this.

Quote Originally Posted by SKkin
and it has become more motivated by profits
Become? It is a business. It has always been motivated by profits. But it is an unusually highly regulated business, certainly when it comes to interaction with the DoD and US (and Aus) governments and any attempts at 'collusion' between themselves.

Quote Originally Posted by SKkin
What it is is that they're out looking for profits, and the more profits, the better. And so if you find a line of conversation--for example, Iran presents a decided threat to the Gulf Cooperation Council--then you can push that line and you can sell more armaments.
Yes they sell arms overseas (in a highly regulated process). They do not try to incite conflict in the process. If they were found to be doing so they would not be allowed to engage with the big money spinner back home: The US government (or any other western governments).