WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- The Pentagon awarded 14 percent of its contracts to small businesses in 2005, about 10 percent below the government goal, an independent research company says.

It is part of a larger trend across the federal government that increasingly favors larger companies over small, according to Eagle Eye Publishing, a company that collects and analyzes federal market data. The 2005 totals were especially affected by contracts let to support the war in Iraq and the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

The Federal Small Business Administration reported that $119 billion in federal contracts -- half of them by the Defense Department -- were awarded to small businesses in prime and subcontracts. But according to the American Small Business League, small businesses with 100 or fewer employees actually received less than $20 billion of that amount.

"The remainder of the awards went to large businesses, including major defense contractors like Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Bechtel, and General Dynamics," ASBL said in a press statement issued Wednesday.

Those companies are among the largest defense firms in the world. They often buy out small businesses, but keep those businesses intact and therefore qualify for small business contracts -- even while the profits pour into their bottom line.