Should You Add a Defense ETF to Your Portfolio in April?

1 hour ago 1

David Dierking, The Motley Fool

Wed, April 8, 2026 astatine 8:20 AM CDT 4 min read

The existent warfare successful Iran has disrupted the planetary geopolitical scenery and the outlook for U.S. stocks. It has besides sent defense stocks soaring.

Over the past year, these three of the biggest aerospace & defence ETFs person outperformed the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by much than 2x:

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  • iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT: ITA)

  • Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT: PPA)

  • State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT: XAR)

VOO Total Return Price Chart

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Whether it's a planetary struggle oregon the request to beryllium prepared for the caller artificial quality (AI) driven world, the request for defence and cybersecurity is apt to lone summation successful the coming years.

Let's instrumentality a look astatine the concern lawsuit for this assemblage and which of the 3 ETFs listed supra mightiness service you best.

Military officers managing defence  post.

Image source: Getty Images.
  • Approximately $2.6 trillion is expected to beryllium spent connected planetary defence successful 2026. One-third volition travel from the United States.

  • The White House's projected 2027 defence fund could beryllium arsenic overmuch arsenic $1.5 trillion.

  • All 3 of the large aerospace & defence ETFs were down astatine slightest 13% from their highs, presenting a imaginable "buy-low" opportunity.

  • Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF, and State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF each connection a chiseled risk/reward illustration and portfolio.

Countries are already spending trillions of dollars connected defense, but that fig is lone going to support growing.

The biggest operator volition beryllium NATO subordinate nations' statement to put astatine slightest 5% of their yearly gross home merchandise (GDP) successful defence by 2035. Most nations are inactive operating nether the erstwhile 2% of GDP guidance, truthful a leap to 5% implicit the adjacent decennary would correspond important concern maturation successful the defence sector.

This benignant of worldwide defence spending should present dependable concern for defence companies for years to come.

Metric

ITA

PPA

XAR

Expense ratio

0.38%

0.58%

0.35%

AUM

$13.7B

$8.0B

$5.9B

Weighting method

Market-cap

Market-cap

Equal-weight

Cap size tilt

Large-caps

Large- and mid-caps

All-cap

12-month return

44.6%

45.3%

60.8%

Morningstar rating

4 stars

5 stars

5 stars

Best use

Tilt toward leaders

Broader exposure

Higher risk, higher upside

Source: money websites

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