BAE rises as Pentagon supplier

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BAE Systems has become the Pentagon's sixth-biggest supplier, up from eighth, despite a U.S. investigation of its compliance with anti-bribery laws to win a Saudi arms deal in the 1980s.

BAE, based in Farnborough, picked up $9.2 billion (4.6 billion pounds) in fiscal 2007 prime contracts, a list of the Pentagon's top 10 contractors showed on a new White House Web site.

In fiscal 2006, its prime Pentagon contracts totalled $4.7 billion. The sole supplier of Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles, BAE remained alone among Europe-based companies to figure as one of the Pentagon's top 10 suppliers.

It was boosted by its acquisition last year of Armor Holdings Inc and demand for its combat vehicles and other land systems used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon's top five suppliers did not change from 2006. In order of sales, they are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon.

L-3 Communications Holdings stayed in seventh place. United Technologies rose to eighth from ninth the year before.

KBR, the biggest Pentagon contractor in Iraq, was No. 9, down from sixth when it was still part of Halliburton.

Science Applications International filled out the last at No. 10, unchanged.