The fall of the Soviet Union rocked Russia’s inherited defense industry to the core. With a government no longer able to bankroll massive procurements, defense industry enterprises were forced to transform into export-oriented businesses or die. This pivot has over the last two decades turned post-Soviet Russia into the world’s second largest arms exporter, only steps behind the United States. In 2014, Russian exports hit new highs at $13.2 billion according to state arms export agency Rosobornexport. 
Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) makes the world's best-selling fighter jet, the F-16 Falcon. With more than 4,500 F-16s built since the aircraft's introduction in 1976, and 2,242 of those planes still in active service around the world, the F-16 is the most popular fighter jet on the planet, making up 15% of the world's air forces today.
Heckler & Koch (HK) used a Defense Ministry go-between to ask Germany's counterintelligence service, MAD, to look into negative press coverage in 2013, the company announced. HK higher-ups reportedly wanted to know who was responsible for negative press coverage amid worries of a hostile takeover. MAD reportedly refused the requests. The Sunday edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has reported that in the summer of 2013 HK officials had become suspicious that a group of intelligence officers and foreign investors aimed to take over the company.