It is new possibilities and products of technology. For example: People were using home phone in the past but people can use touch pad phones right now. This is an advancement of technology
It is fair to say that without capacitors (and resistors and inductors) we would have no electronics. Better dielectrics are an area for improvement in capacitors, as is reduction in size.
One notable advancement is the digital watch. When early humans needed to know the exact time of day, they just had to settle for not knowing. They might guess from the position of the sun that it...
Lockheed Martin,General Dynamics,Bechtel.ETC...good start to the list, but these are mainly US companies. Remember the USA was not the only country involved in these wars.