1.   It was Augustine who got the Clinton administration to use taxpayer money to subsidize a series of defense industry mergers.

2.   And the Justice Department is acting tough on defense industry mergers, where almost anything has gotten a free ride.

3.   Antitrust enforcers are already showing that they are getting tougher on defense mergers.

4.   At the Federal Trade Commission, chief Robert Pitofsky has said future defense mergers are likely to raise antitrust problems.

5.   Besides, he said, it would be unfair for the government to block the Raytheon-Hughes deal after approving other big defense mergers.

6.   But by staying out of the post-Cold War wave of defense mergers, Raytheon found itself a midsize defense contractor in danger of being outflanked by larger companies.

7.   Concerns about the defense mergers come not only from Congress.

8.   In Europe it is primarily the French who invest substantially in military research, said Robin Laird, a consultant involved in trans-Atlantic defense mergers.

9.   In defense mergers, both federal agencies rely heavily on competitive information from the Defense Department when reviewing the antitrust implications of a particular pairing.

10.   Over the last few years, the FTC has examined and approved more than two dozen defense mergers.