To the weapons contractors' programmers, however, the war had a different name.

Neither the Pentagon nor Congress nor the weapons contractors have any prescription to cure the problem.

The government work of managing the design, development and production of weapons has been largely outsourced to the weapons contractors themselves.

Advocates for the current whistle-blower statute say weapons contractors are trying to render the law useless.

But the way the Defense Department does business with its weapons contractors remains deeply wrong, in need of overhaul.

Faced with drastic cuts in military spending, weapons contractors have adopted a strategy of acquiring businesses in markets they can dominate and selling off the rest.

When the Government loosened its prohibition against mergers between big military weapons contractors several year ago, the urge to merge began in earnest.

The legislation would cover thousands of people who worked for private weapons contractors.

The ordinance also minimized the City's contracts for and purchases of the products and services of nuclear weapons contractors.

During that conversation, the two men discussed a charity golf tournament at which Unisys and other weapons contractors raised money for a community college.