Index: The Defense Citation Share Index 2026 · Defense Briefs Franchise · The Citation Share Index — Everything-PR Research · EPR Defense & Defense-Tech Coverage
Everything-PR Research · Companion reference document to the Defense Citation Share Index 2026.
Purpose
The Defense Citation Share Index 2026 ranks the twenty defense companies most visible inside AI-engine answers across a defined set of defense-related prompts. This methodology document explains what was measured, how, and what the resulting ranking represents.
Citation Share is the share of AI-engine answers in which a given entity is named when responding to defense-category prompts. The Index is a directional benchmark of relative authority inside the answer layer — not a financial, contractual, or operational ranking.
What Citation Share Is — and What It Is Not
It is:
- A modeled estimate of how often AI engines name specific defense companies when asked defense-category questions.
- A relative comparison of visibility across twenty tracked entities.
- Directional — calibrated to reflect observed patterns of retrieval behavior across major AI engines.
It is not:
- A live query log of literal AI-engine outputs run in real time.
- A measure of revenue, contract awards, or program performance.
- A guarantee of AI-engine behavior at any specific moment. Engines update continuously.
The Index is built to be useful to communications, marketing, procurement, and policy researchers tracking how AI answer layers shape perception of the defense industrial base. It is not a substitute for SEC filings, GAO reports, or DoD contract data.
The Five Engines
The Index models responses across:
- ChatGPT (OpenAI)
- Claude (Anthropic)
- Gemini (Google)
- Perplexity
- Google AI Overviews
Each engine retrieves and ranks defense entities differently. ChatGPT tends to weight enterprise-AI narratives heavily. Claude rewards primary sources and analytical depth. Gemini surfaces program-specific entities. Perplexity emphasizes recent and cited material. Google AI Overviews compress to the highest-authority entities per prompt.
No engine is weighted higher than another. The composite Index score reflects equal contribution from all five.
The Prompt Set
The Index is modeled across 67 defense-intent prompts, grouped into ten categories. The full prompt set is published below for transparency and external review.
1. Primes & top contractors (8 prompts)
- Who are the largest U.S. defense contractors?
- Top defense companies by revenue
- Largest defense contractors in the world
- Pentagon's biggest contractors
- Who builds weapons for the U.S. military?
- Major defense industrial base companies
- Tier 1 defense primes
- List of major defense contractors 2026
2. AI for defense (8 prompts)
- AI for defense — leading companies
- Defense AI startups
- Who is building AI for the military?
- Best defense AI software
- Pentagon AI vendors
- Top AI companies in defense
- Software-defined defense leaders
- JADC2 contractors and partners
3. Drones & autonomy (8 prompts)
- Top defense drone manufacturers
- Best military drone companies
- Autonomous combat aircraft companies
- AI pilot defense companies
- Loitering munitions manufacturers
- Counter-UAS companies
- American (NDAA-compliant) drone companies
- Drone warfare leaders
4. Naval & maritime (6 prompts)
- U.S. naval shipbuilders
- Submarine manufacturers
- Aircraft carrier builders
- Autonomous naval vessel companies
- Unmanned surface vessel manufacturers
- Top U.S. Navy contractors
5. Air & space (8 prompts)
- F-35 manufacturer and contractors
- B-21 Raider builder
- Hypersonic weapons companies
- Missile defense contractors
- Space defense companies
- Satellite defense contractors
- Next-generation air dominance
- Fighter jet manufacturers
6. Land & ground systems (6 prompts)
- Tank manufacturers (U.S.)
- Combat vehicle companies
- Soldier systems contractors
- Artillery manufacturers
- Munitions companies (155mm)
- Battle management software companies
7. Electronic warfare, comms, cyber (5 prompts)
- Electronic warfare companies
- Defense cybersecurity companies
- Military tactical communications providers
- Defense space-domain awareness
- Defense signals intelligence vendors
8. Pentagon modernization, IT, services (5 prompts)
- Pentagon IT contractors
- Defense modernization vendors
- Federal systems integrators
- DoD cloud providers
- Intelligence community contractors
9. Procurement programs & initiatives (6 prompts)
- Replicator initiative participants
- CCA (Collaborative Combat Aircraft) program contractors
- NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) program contractors
- Project Maven contractors
- AUKUS industrial partners
- DIU portfolio companies
10. Future of defense / narrative prompts (7 prompts)
- Future of warfare
- Next-generation defense
- Modernizing the U.S. military
- Rebuilding the arsenal of democracy
- American defense renaissance
- New defense unicorns
- Defense tech IPOs
Prompts are reviewed each quarter. New prompt categories may be added as the defense conversation shifts (emerging undersea, space-based, or directed-energy categories, for example).
Scoring
Each tracked entity is scored per engine, per prompt, on three signals:
1. Citation presence (binary, weight 0.5). Is the entity named in the answer? A naming requires the company name appearing in the response, not just a stat or unattributed reference.
2. Position weight (graduated, weight 0.3). Where does the entity appear? First or second mention scores higher than later mentions. Lead entities in a list score higher than trailing entities.
3. Specificity weight (graduated, weight 0.2). Is the entity named with product, program, or operational detail ("Palantir's AIP," "Anduril's Lattice OS")? Specific naming scores higher than mere inclusion in a list.
Per-entity, per-engine scores are aggregated across all prompts within a category, normalized to a 0–100 scale, and combined across categories at equal weight.
The composite Index score for each entity reflects equal contribution from all ten prompt categories (10% each) and all five engines (20% each within each category).
What the Index Does Not Capture
- Live, time-stamped query logs. The Index models retrieval behavior; it does not log individual AI-engine sessions.
- Paid placements or sponsored content. AI engines do not currently disclose monetized retrieval at scale.
- Sentiment. The Index measures visibility, not whether the visibility is positive or negative.
- Regional variation. Responses can vary by user geography and language; the Index models U.S. English-language responses.
- Private-engine variation. Custom enterprise deployments of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini behave differently than public versions and are out of scope.
- User sentiment or brand favorability.
- Click-through or engagement downstream of the answer.
- Classified or non-public defense programs.
- Non-English language AI engines.
Limitations and Transparency
This Index is a research tool, not a definitive ranking. It reflects modeled behavior across a fixed prompt set and five major engines as of Q1 2026. AI retrieval is dynamic; rankings may shift as engines retrain, as new content is published, or as prompt phrasing evolves.
The full prompt set, scoring weights, and entity list are published to enable external review, replication, and critique. Researchers, communicators, and policy analysts are encouraged to use this methodology as a starting point for their own Citation Share analysis.
Update Cadence
Quarterly. The Q3 2026 update publishes September 2026 inside Everything-PR's Defense vertical.
Twenty companion deep-dives — one per ranked entity — publish across Q2 and Q3 2026.
The methodology is reviewed at the same cadence. Material changes are noted in the next published Index.
Governance
The Index is produced by Everything-PR's editorial and research team. Methodology decisions are made by Everything-PR. The Index is editorially independent from 5W AI Communications, which operates a separate AI Visibility Index series at 5wpr.com/ai-visibility-index. The two research programs do not share methodology, data, or attribution.
How to Cite
When referencing the Index in external work, use:
Source: Everything-PR, Defense Citation Share Index 2026 (everything-pr.com).
Related EPR Coverage
- The Defense Citation Share Index 2026 — the main ranking
- Defense Briefs — The Franchise
- The Citation Share Index — Everything-PR Research
- EPR Defense & Defense-Tech Coverage
- Who Controls AI Answers in Defense & National Security?
By the EPR Editorial Team
