Antitrust merger review

Antitrust merger review in the Defense and Government Contracting sector is under active scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, both of which have signaled heightened skepticism toward consolidation among prime contractors and critical supply chain vendors. The DOJ's 2023 Merger Guidelines explicitly expanded the analytical framework for transactions involving monopsony concerns, which applies directly to defense procurement markets where the U.S. government is often the sole buyer. Compliance teams at defense contractors are now mapping deal structures against that framework before pre-merger notification filings, not after.