Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at Teal Group, said the acquisition fits into Lockheed’s strategy of taking services it had sold to government agencies and finding new areas in the private sector to apply them. “What Lockheed is doing is taking its core expertise and looking at what are the potential markets that are growing,” he said.

Analysts said the acquisition would give BAE, already the biggest foreign player in the U.S. defense market, an even better chance of winning top Pentagon contracts. “Their whole strategy has really been focused on the U.S.,” said Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis for the Teal Group, noting that the company has made several U.S. acquisitions in recent years.