One of these companies is a lot more profitable than the other.

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."

-- Senator Everett Dirksen

The honorable senator from Illinois went down in the history books with this famous quip about government spending -- which is nowhere truer than in the defense department , where billion-dollar paydays pop up with regularity. Still, when I took a look at the list of Pentagon contracts published on July 31 in particular, I admit my eyes did goggle a little.

In just two announcements amounting to fewer than 600 words total, the U.S. government awarded Lockheed Martin ( LMT 0.06% ) and RTX Corporation ( RTX -0.27% ) just under $7.8 billion.

Big news for LockMart and RTX

Both contracts concern the order

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