Defense
The Signal's coverage of Defense stocks — sharp analysis on earnings, contracts, and market-moving catalysts.
AeroVironment: The Full-Stack Arsenal of the Drone Age
AeroVironment builds the small drones, the loitering munitions, and the laser drone-killers that define modern warfare — plus the AI that runs them. Shares sit ...
DRS Just Bought the Army's AI Brain. Here's Why That's a Moat.
Leonardo DRS makes the electro-optical sensors, electronic-warfare systems, tactical radars, and naval power gear inside nearly every major U.S. weapon system —...
Forget the Killer Robots. BigBear.ai Is Betting Defense AI's Real Money Is in Decision Speed.
BigBear.ai builds decision-intelligence software that fuses messy military and intelligence data so commanders can act faster — a rare pure-play on the "decisio...
The Navy Just Bet $22.9 Billion That RTX Can Build 17x More Tomahawks
The Navy handed Raytheon a $22.9 billion, seven-year contract to lift Tomahawk production from roughly 60 missiles a year to more than 1,000. The stock barely m...
Two Yards, One Navy
HII crushed Q2 estimates, and the night before that print the Navy dropped $76.6 billion in submarine contract work on the duopoly. With a $57.3 billion backlog...
The Spectrum and the Arsenal: L3Harris Is Quietly Becoming Defense's Compounding Franchise
L3Harris has re-engineered itself from a low-margin defense conglomerate into a compounding franchise: a 26.9% margin fortress in communications and spectrum do...
AeroVironment's Switchblade Moat Is the Real Story — SCAR Is Just Noise
AeroVironment's stock has fallen more than half from its peak, dragged down by the SCAR space-contract termination, a $151 million impairment, and a securities ...
Northrop Grumman Just Became the $3 Billion Chokepoint of Missile Defense
On August 3, the Pentagon signed two seven-year framework agreements with Northrop Grumman totaling more than $3 billion — $2 billion for PAC-3 solid rocket mot...
Howmet Is the Toll Booth on Every Jet Engine
Howmet Aerospace doesn't build the planes — it owns the parts every engine needs. With a 65x trailing multiple, the market is paying up for a moat that only two...
HII Just Crushed Earnings — America's Nuclear Navy Can't Build Ships Fast Enough
Huntington Ingalls blew past Q2 2026 estimates with a 38% EPS beat as Newport News Shipbuilding revenue surged 15.3%. Backlog hit $57.3 billion, guidance went u...
Kratos Is Building the Pentagon's Drone Army — and Wall Street Is Still Pricing It Like a Parts Supplier
Kratos Defense (KTOS) sits at the center of the Pentagon's most significant procurement shift since the Cold War — from exquisite, $150M fighter jets to afforda...
Leidos's $48.4 Billion Backlog Is About to Accelerate — Iran Just Made Sure of It
Iran's surprise ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces today shattered a fragile four-day ceasefire and sent a clear signal that the defense supercycle has no ...
Raytheon's $289 Billion Backlog Proves the Iran War Supercycle Is Real
Raytheon Technologies reported a blockbuster Q2 with a record $289B backlog and raised full-year guidance, validating that the Iran war-driven defense supercycl...
AeroVironment Just Landed the Pentagon's Biggest Counter-Drone Deal Ever — So Why Is the Stock at 52-Week Lows?
AeroVironment won the Pentagon's largest-ever counter-UAS contract — $500M — and followed it up with a $186M Army delivery order. Revenue hit nearly $2B, backlo...
Two Legs of the Nuclear Triad. One Company. Zero Competition. That's Northrop Grumman.
Northrop Grumman (NOC) is the sole-source contractor on both the B-21 Raider stealth bomber (air leg) and the Sentinel ICBM (land leg) — two of the three legs o...
GE Aerospace Isn't an Engine Maker. It's a Recurring Revenue Machine.
GE Aerospace carries $19.2 billion in deferred service revenue from power-by-the-hour maintenance contracts on 44,000+ engines — an installed base that generate...
The Defense Supercycle Is Here. RTX Has $271 Billion Reasons to Care.
RTX (RTX) is sitting on a record $271 billion backlog — that's over three years of locked-in revenue — as NATO defense spending surges past $1.8 trillion in 202...
Northrop Grumman Is Down 31% With a $95.6B Backlog — Something Doesn't Add Up
Northrop Grumman (NOC) is down 31% from its 52-week high despite a record $95.6B backlog, sole-source franchises in B-21 Raider and Sentinel ICBM, and 85% EPS g...
Everyone's Obsessed With AI. Axon Already Put It In Every Cop Car in America.
Axon Enterprise is down 38% from its ATH despite 33% revenue growth, 80%+ body camera market share, and an AI revolution in policing that's already deployed. He...
The Biggest Munitions Ramp Since World War II Is Happening Right Now
Lockheed Martin's $193B backlog, sole-source dominance across air, land, sea, and space, and the biggest munitions production ramp since WWII make it a multi-ye...
Kratos Is Getting Destroyed This Year — And That's Exactly Why You Should Pay Attention
Kratos Defense has been obliterated in 2026 — stock down 36% year-to-date, market cap under $10B despite a record $2.01B backlog and a $14.3B pipeline. But whil...
Axon Isn’t a Taser Company Anymore — It’s a $129B AI Monopoly Hiding in Plain Sight
Axon isn't a taser company anymore — it's an AI platform with a 72% body camera monopoly, $14.3B in contracted future revenue, and a Draft One AI product growin...
The $11.6B Defense Stock Hiding Inside Every Major Weapon System
Leonardo DRS (DRS) is a $11.6B defense electronics pure-play. Their sensors, thermal imaging, and electronic warfare components go into virtually every U.S. mil...
L3Harris Just Won $614M in New Contracts While Everyone Chased AI Stocks
L3Harris (LHX) closed a $614M USSOCOM electronic warfare contract and delivered Air Force One while posting record backlogs. Forward PE of 22x and $2.7B in free...
The Drone Company Trading at 65% Off Its Highs While the Pentagon Bets Its Future on Autonomous Combat
Kratos Defense ($KTOS) is the behind-the-scenes force powering the Pentagon's autonomous drone revolution — XQ-58 Valkyrie, Mojave cruise missiles, and now Elro...
RTX Just Crossed a Quarter-Trillion Market Cap — And the Defense Backlog Says It's Not Done
Raytheon Technologies hit $251B market cap as its defense backlog swells to a record $271 billion. With NATO spending targets rising and Patriot interceptors in...
Lockheed's $186B Secret Nobody's Talking About
Lockheed Martin quietly holds a $186B backlog, a 416-jet F-35 pipeline, and the West's only operational hypersonic weapon program. The stock trades at 16x forwa...
Palantir Has $13.7B in Government Contracts, Revenue Doubled — and the Stock Is Down 24%. This Is the Trade.
Palantir has $13.7B in multi-year contract ceilings, 20,000 Maven users across 5 combatant commands, and revenue that nearly doubled to $1.63B. The stock is dow...
KTOS Is Down 29% While the Business Is Accelerating — The Valkyrie Drone Army Bet Nobody's Pricing In
Kratos Defense ($KTOS) is down 29% YTD to $56.15 despite $1.415B in TTM revenue (+22.6% YoY), a $2.01B backlog, and a string of massive new contracts from Space...
The Pentagon's Drone Budget Just Exploded — These Four Companies Own the Receipts
The US government is pouring billions into drone programs — Kratos, AeroVironment, Red Cat, and Ondas are the four names positioned to capture the wave. Multi-y...
The Pentagon Just Gave Anduril $20 Billion — And Defense Tech Stocks Are Next
Anduril lands a $20B Army enterprise contract with a counter-drone first task order as the Pentagon formalizes Palantir's Maven AI as a core military system wit...
Applied Aerospace Just Dropped a $650M IPO — Here's What Investors Are Missing
Applied Aerospace & Defense Corp (AADX) raised $650M in its IPO at a $3.5B valuation. Shares dipped 5% on day one despite 25% revenue growth. Is this a buying o...
Ondas Inc. Just Became a Defense Powerhouse — $1B Raised, Revenue Up 605%, and It's Still Flying Under the Radar
Ondas Inc. (formerly Ondas Holdings) completed a stunning transformation over the past year — raising $1B in equity, acquiring five defense tech companies, land...
BigBear.ai Stock Surges 20% as $60M Defense Contracts and Panama AI Deal Reshape the Narrative
BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI) shares surged 20% this week after the company reported Q1 earnings that beat revenue estimates, grew its contract backlog to $282 millio...
Palantir Surges 10% as Dell's Blowout Earnings Validate AI Factory Partnership
Palantir jumped 10% on May 29 after Dell's massive Q1 earnings beat validated the AI spending cycle. With US commercial revenue crossing 100% growth, Palantir's...
Space Force Just Dropped $3.2 Billion on Golden Dome — The Biggest Missile Defense Play Since Star Wars
The Space Force selected 12 contractors for the Golden Dome program — a $3.2B space-based missile interceptor initiative. Lockheed Martin, RTX, L3Harris, and No...
Iran Just Threatened U.S. Tech Giants — Defense Stocks Are the Only Safe Haven
Iran's IRGC issued a formal warning that American tech companies — including Nvidia, Apple, and cloud infrastructure providers — could become legitimate targets...
Palantir Grew Revenue 85% and Raised Guidance — So Why Is PLTR Down 26% YTD?
Palantir reported Q1 2026 with 85% YoY revenue growth to an estimated $1.4B+, ARR crossed $6.5B, and full-year guidance was raised to 71%. Adjusted operating ma...
General Dynamics Just Dropped a Monster Earnings Beat — And Defense Spending Is About to Go Nuclear
General Dynamics ($GD) is firing on all cylinders — Q1 2026 earnings smashed estimates by 11%, Gulfstream is shipping record business jets, the Virginia-class s...
Kratos Is Quietly Building the Pentagon's Drone Army — $KTOS Is the Purest Defense AI Play
Kratos Defense ($KTOS) is emerging as the Pentagon's go-to supplier for jet-powered drones and autonomous combat aircraft, with the BQM-177A target drone and Va...
Palantir vs The Pentagon: America's AI Darling Just Bit the Hand That Feeds It
Axios reports Palantir is battling the Pentagon's DIA over a major intelligence contract, alleging wasteful procurement practices. The government's most-embedde...
Rheinmetall Is the Centerpiece of Europe's Rearmament — And It's Still Early
Rheinmetall AG (OTCPK: RNMBY) is the single best-positioned company in the European defense rearmament cycle. $10.07B in revenue growing 28.8% YoY, $1.05B net i...
Axon Just Dropped a 34% Revenue Beat and the Market Punched It. That's Your Signal.
Axon Enterprise (AXON) reported a massive Q1 2026 earnings beat — $807M in revenue, 34% YoY growth, raised full-year outlook, and a Zacks upgrade to Strong Buy....
GE Aerospace Is the Sleeping Giant Nobody's Watching — Up 35% With Room to Run
GE Aerospace (GE) is up 35.7% in the last year but down 18% from its highs — and Barron's just called it 'unfairly punished.' With a $40B engine backlog, a new ...
RTX Just Dipped 18% From Its Highs. Here's Why That's Your Entry Point.
RTX dropped 18% from its $214 high despite posting $90B revenue, $7.2B FCF, and a growing dividend. At 25x forward earnings with a 28% analyst upside and defens...
Why AXON is the Ultimate Unkillable Portfolio Diversifier
Axon Enterprise (AXON) crossed $1.5B in ARR with 125% NRR and AI revenue exploding 700% YoY. At $386 — nearly 50% off highs — this defense-style AI monopoly is ...